On all who saw her, Joan’s earnestness, singleness of heart, and deep piety made but one impression.  Only the king remained undecided; he could hardly be roused to see her, but at last he named a day, and Joan of Arc had her desire and stood before him in the great hall of Chinon.  Fifty torches lighted the hall, which was crowded with knights and nobles.  Joan, too self-forgetful to feel abashed, walked forward firmly.  Charles had placed himself among his courtiers, so that she should not know him.  Not by inspiration, as they thought, but because with her enthusiasm she must have heard him described often and often, she at once singled him out and clasped his knees.  Charles denied that he was the king.  “In the name of God,” Joan answered, “it no other but yourself.  Most noble Lord Dauphin, I am Joan, the maid sent on the part of God to aid you and your kingdom; and by his command I announce to you that you shall be crowned in the city of Rheims, and shall become his lieutenant in the realm of France.”  Charles led her aside, and told his courtiers afterward that in their private conversation she had revealed to him secrets.  But all that she said appears to have been, “I tell thee from my Lord that thou art the true heir of France.”  A few days before the king had offered a prayer for help only on condition that he was the rightful sovereign, and it has been well said that “such a coincidence of idea on so obvious a topic seems very far from supernatural or even surprising.”  It is but one out of many proofs how ready every one in those days was to believe in signs and wonders.

Her fame spread wide; there went abroad all kinds of reports about her miraculous powers.  Already the French began to hope and the English to wonder.

The king still doubted, and so did his council.  People in our own day, who admire the wisdom of the Dark Ages, would do well to study the story of Joan of Arc.  She was taken before the University of Poictiers.  Six weeks did the learned doctors employ in determining whether Joan was sent by God or in league with the devil.  She never made any claim to supernatural help beyond what she needed to fulfill her mission.  She refused to give them a sign, saying that her sign would be at Orleans—­the leading of brave men to battle.  She boasted no attainments, declaring that she knew neither A nor B; only, she must raise the siege of Orleans and crown the Dauphin.  The friars sent to her old home to inquire about her, and brought back a spotless report of her life.  So, after the tedious examination, the judgment of the learned and wise men of Poictiers was that Charles might accept her services without peril to his soul.

The vexatious delays over, Joan of Arc set out for Orleans.  In the church of Fierbois she had seen, among other old weapons, a sword marked with five crosses.  For this she sent.  When she left Vaucouleurs she had put on a man’s dress; now she was clad in white armor.  A banner was prepared under her directions; this also was white, strewn with the lilies of France.