to an idle dreamer.  At the outset Charles suffered two defeats, at Crevant in 1423, and at Verneuil in 1424, and things seemed to be come to their worst.  Yet he was prudent, conciliatory, and willing to wait; and as the English power in France—­that triangle of which the base was the sea-line from Harfleur to Calais, and the apex Paris—­was unnatural and far from being really strong; and as the relations between Bedford and Burgundy might not always be friendly, the man who could wait had many chances in his favour.  Before long, things began to mend; Charles wedded Marie d’Anjou, and won over that great house to the French side; more and more was he regarded as the nation’s King; symptoms of a wish for reconciliation with Burgundy appeared; the most vehement Armagnacs were sent away from Court.  Causes of disagreement also shook the friendship between Burgundy and England.

Feeling the evils of inaction most, Bedford in 1428 decided on a forward movement, and sent the Earl of Salisbury to the south.  He first secured his position on the north of the Loire, then, crossing that river, laid siege to Orleans, the key to the south, and the last bulwark of the national party.  All efforts to vex or dislodge him failed; and the attempt early in 1429 to stop the English supplies was completely defeated at Bouvray; from the salt fish captured, the battle has taken the name of “the Day of the Herrings.”  Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, was, wounded; the Scots, the King’s body-guard, on whom fell ever the grimmest of the fighting, suffered terribly, and their leader was killed.  All went well for Bedford till it suited the Duke of Burgundy to withdraw from his side, carrying with him a large part of the fighting power of the besiegers.  Things were already looking rather gloomy in the English camp, when a new and unexpected rumour struck all hearts cold with fear.  A virgin, an Amazon, had been raised up as a deliverer for France, and would soon be on them, armed with mysterious powers.

A young peasant girl, one Jeanne d’Arc, had been brought up in the village of Domremy, hard by the Lorraine border.  The district, always French in feeling, had lately suffered much from Burgundian raids; and this young damsel, brooding over the treatment of her village and her country, and filled with that strange vision-power which is no rare phenomenon in itself with young girls, came at last to believe with warm and active faith in heavenly appearances and messages, all urging her to deliver France and her King.  From faith to action the bridge is short; and ere long the young dreamer of seventeen set forth to work her miracle.  Her history is quite unique in the world; and though probably France would ere many years have shaken off the English yoke, for its strength was rapidly going, still to her is the credit of having proved its weakness, and of having asserted the triumphant power of a great belief.  All gave way before her; Charles VII., persuaded doubtless