It was on the evening of the 16th of July that the royal host at length came in sight of the massive towers of the great cathedral church of Rheims.  It was at Sept Saulx, about eight miles’ distance from Rheims, that the King waited for a deputation to reach him from the town.  Rheims was still filled with the English and Burgundian adherents, and had Bedford chosen to throw, as he could well have done, a force into that place, Charles might yet have been prevented from entering its gates.  Perhaps Bedford did not believe in the possibility of Charles arriving at his goal, and had counted on the King’s well-known weakness and indecision, and on the hesitation of such men as La Tremoille and others of his Council.  The Regent had received assurances from the officials in Rheims that they would not admit Charles.  But after what passed at Troyes and at Chalons, Charles had not long to wait for a favourable answer from his lieges at Rheims.  Indeed, the deputation which met him at Sept Saulx were effusive in their good offices and entreaties that the King should forthwith enter his good city of Rheims.

The Archbishop (Regnault de Chartres), who had preceded the King by a few hours to his town, came out to meet the King at the head of the corporation and civic companies.  From all sides flocked crowds eager to welcome the King, and even more the Maid of Orleans.  In those days the people’s cry of joy and triumph was ’Noel!’—­but why that cry of Christmas joy had become the popular hosanna, it is not easy to conjecture.

Throughout that night the preparations for the coronation were feverishly made both within and without the cathedral.  On the 17th of July, with all the pomp and ceremony that the church and army could bestow, the King was crowned and anointed with the holy oil which four of his principal officers had brought to the cathedral from the ancient abbey church of Saint-Remy.

There exist few grander fanes in Christendom than the great cathedral of Rheims.  The thirteenth century, so prolific of splendid churches, had expended all its wealth of lavish decoration on the gorgeous portal, with its array of saints and sovereigns, under which passed Charles VII. of France, with the Maid of Orleans on his right hand.  Hurried as had been the preparations for the ceremonial, the even then ancient and venerable rites must have deeply impressed the spectators, and the semi-sacred act was carried out with scrupulous care—­the King crowned and anointed with the holy oil, surrounded on his throne by the ecclesiastical peers and high dignitaries of the Church, and waited on by the secular peers during the crowning and after at the coronation banquet.

At length was accomplished the darling wish of Joan of Arc’s heart, for now her King was regarded and sanctioned by all true French persons as King of France, by the grace of God and Holy Church.