We have little heart to tell the rest of the story.  At length the king reached Paris, and the Duke of Bedford was away in Normandy.  Joan wished to attack the city, and it was done.  Many of the soldiers were jealous of her, and they fought only feebly.  They crossed the first ditch round the city, but found the second full of water.  Joan was trying its depth with her lance, when she was seriously wounded.  She lay on the ground cheering the troops, calling for fagots and bundles of wood to fill the trench, nor would she withdraw until the evening, when the Duke of Alencon persuaded her to give up the attempt, as it had prospered so ill.

Were it not so wicked and so shameful, it might be laughable to think of the king’s idleness.  It is really true that he longed for his lovely Chinon, and a quiet life, as a tired child longs to go to sleep.  He made his misfortune at Paris, which would have stirred up almost any one else to greater exertions, an excuse for getting away.  The troops were sent to winter quarters; he went back across the Loire now, when the English leader was away, and the chief towns in the north ready to submit.  Had he but shown himself a man, he might have gained his capital, and the whole of the north of France.  The spirit lately roused for him was down again.  It seemed really not worth while to fight for a king who would not attend to business for more than two months together.

We know little more of the Maid of Orleans in the Winter, than that she continued with the army.  After her defeat at Paris, she hung her armor up in the church at St. Denis, and made up her mind to go home.  The entreaties of the French leaders prevailed again; for, though they were jealous of her, and slighted her on every occasion, they knew her power, and were glad to get all out of her that they could.  In December, Joan and all her family were made nobles by the king.  They changed their name from Arc to Du Lys, “Lys” being French for lily, the flower of France, as the rose is of England; and they were given the lily of France for their coat of arms.

With the return of Spring the king’s troops marched into the northern provinces.  Charles would not leave Chinon.  The army was utterly disorderly, and had no idea what to set about.  Joan showed herself as brave as ever in such fighting as there was.  But, doubting whether she was in her right place or her wrong one, in the midst of fierce and lawless men, nothing pointed out for her to do, her situation was most miserable.  The Duke of Gloucester sent out a proclamation to strengthen the hearts of the English troops against her.  The title was “against the feeble-minded captains and soldiers who are terrified by the incantations of the Maid.”