The journey between Vaucouleurs and Chinon occupied eleven days.  Not only was the danger of attack from the English and Burgundian soldiers a great and a constant one, but the winter, which had been exceptionally wet, had flooded all the rivers.  Five of these had to be crossed—­namely, the Marne, the Aube, the Seine, the Yonne, and the Loire:  and most of the bridges and fords of these rivers were strictly guarded by the enemy.  The little band, for greater security, mostly travelled during the night.  Their first halt was made at the Monastery of Saint-Urbain-les-Joinville.  The Celibat of this monastery was named Arnoult d’Aunoy, and was a relative of de Baudricourt.  After leaving that shelter they had to camp out in the open country.

Joan’s chief anxiety was that she might be able to attend Mass every day.  ’If we are able to attend the service of the Church, all will be well,’ she said to her escort.  The soldiers only twice allowed her the opportunity of doing so, on one occasion in the principal church of the town of Auxerre.

They crossed the Loire at Gien; and at that place, in the church dedicated to one of Joan’s special saints—­St. Catherine, for whom she held a personal adoration—­she thrice attended Mass.

When the little band entered Touraine, they were out of danger, and here the news of the approach of the Maid spread like wildfire over the country-side.  Even the besieged burghers of Orleans learned that the time of their delivery from the English was at hand.

Perhaps it was when passing through Fierbois that Joan may have been told of the existence in its church of the sword which so conspicuously figured in her later story, and was believed to have been miraculously revealed to her.

A letter was despatched from Fierbois to Charles at Chinon, announcing the Maid’s approach, and craving an audience.  At length, on the 6th of March, Joan of Arc arrived beneath the long stretch of castle walls of the splendid old Castle of Chinon.

That imposing ruin on the banks of the river Vienne is even in its present abandoned state one of the grandest piles of mediaeval building in the whole of France.  Crowning the rich vale of Touraine, with the river winding below, and reflecting its castle towers in the still water, this time-honoured home of our Plantagenet kings has been not inaptly compared to Windsor.  Beneath the castle walls and the river, nestles the quaint old town, in which are mediaeval houses once inhabited by the court and followers of the French and English kings.

When Joan arrived at Chinon, Charles’s affairs were in a very perilous state.  The yet uncrowned King of France regarded the chances of being able to hold his own in France as highly problematical.  He had doubts as to his legitimacy.  Financially, so low were his affairs that even the turnspits in the palace were clamouring for their unpaid wages.  The unfortunate monarch had already sold his jewels