[Illustration:  HALL OF AUDIENCE—­CHINON]

It appears, from all the accounts which have come to us of this interview, that Charles was at first somewhat loth to take Joan and her mission seriously.  He appears to have treated the Maid as a mere visionary; but after an interview which the King gave her apart from the crowded gallery, when she is supposed to have revealed to him a secret known only to himself, his whole manner changed, and from that moment Joan exercised a strong influence over the man, all-vacillating as was his character.  It has never been known what words actually passed in this private interview between the pair, but the subject probably was connected with a doubt that had long tortured the mind of the King—­namely, whether he were legitimately the heir to the late King’s throne.  At any rate the impression Joan had produced on the King was, after that conversation, a favourable one, and Charles commanded that, instead of returning to her lodging in the town, Joan should be lodged in the castle.

The tower which she occupied still exists—­one of the large circular towers on the third line of the fortifications.  A gloomy-looking cryptal room on the ground floor was probably the one occupied by Joan.  It goes by the name of Belier’s Tower—­a knight whose wife, Anne de Maille, bore a reputation for great goodness among the people of the Court.  Close to Belier’s Tower is a chapel within another part of the castle grounds, but the church which in those days stood hard by Joan’s tower has long since disappeared—­its site is now a mass of wild foliage.

While Joan was at Chinon, there arrived, from his three years’ imprisonment in England, the young Duke of Anjou.  Of all those who were attached to the Court and related to the French sovereign, this young Prince was the most sympathetic to Joan of Arc.  He seems to have fulfilled the character of some hero of romance more than any of the French princes of that time, and Joan at once found in him a chivalrous ally and a firm friend.  That she admired him we cannot doubt, and she loved to call him her knight.

Hurrying to Chinon, having heard of the Maid of Domremy’s arrival, he found Joan with the King.  Her enthusiasm was contagious with the young Prince, who declared how eagerly he would help her in her enterprise.

’The more there are of the blood royal of France to help in our enterprise the better,’ answered Joan.

Many obstacles had still to be met before the King accorded liberty of action to the Maid.  La Tremoille and others of his stamp threw all the difficulties they could suggest in the way of Joan of Arc’s expedition to deliver Orleans:  these men preferred their easy life at Chinon to the arbitrament of battle.  In vain Joan sought the King and pressed him to come to a decision:  one day he said he would consent to her progress, and the following he refused to give his consent.  He listened to the Maid, but also to the courtiers, priests, and lawyers, and among so many counsellors he could come to no determination.