第39章 THE CORONATION.JULY 17,1429.(4)

The position of Charles crowned King of France with all the traditional pomp,master of the Orleannais,with fresh bands of supporters coming in to swell his army day by day,and Paris itself almost within his reach,was very different from that of the discredited Dauphin at Chinon,whom half the world believed to have no right to the crown which his own mother had signed away from him,and who wasted his idle days in folly to the profit of the greedy councillors who schemed and trafficked with his enemies,and to the destruction of all his hopes.The strange apparition of virginal purity,energy,and faith which had taken up and saved him against his will and all his efforts had not ceased for a moment to be hateful to La Tremouille and his party;and Charles--though he seems to have had a certain appreciation of the Maid,and even a liking for her frank and fearless character,apart from any faith in her mission--was far too ready to accept the facts of the moment,and probably to believe that,after all,his own worth and favour with Heaven had a great deal to do with this dazzling triumph and success:certainly he was not the man to make any stand for his deliverer.But that she was an auxiliary too important to be sent away was reluctantly apparent to them all.To keep her as a sort of tame angel about the Court in order to be produced when she was wanted,to put heart into the soldiers and frighten the English as she certainly had the gift of doing,no doubt appeared to all as a thing desirable enough.And they dared not let her go "because of the people,"nor,may we believe,would Alen?on,Dunois,La Hire,and the rest have tolerated thus the abandonment of their comrade.To dismiss her even at her own word would have been impossible,and it is hard to believe that Jeanne,after that extraordinary brief career as a triumphant general and leader,could have gone back to her father's cottage of the village,though she thought she would fain have done so.If we are to believe that she felt her mission to be fulfilled,she was yet mistress of her fate to serve France and the King as seemed best.

And we have no evidence that her "voices"forsook her,or discouraged her.They seem to have changed a little in their burden,they began to mingle a sadder tone in their intimations.It began to be breathed into her mind though not immediately,that something was to happen to her,some disaster not explained,yet that God was to be with her.It seems to me that all the circumstances are compatible with a change in Jeanne's consciousness,from the moment of the coronation.It might have been a grander thing had she retired there and then,her work being accomplished as she declared it to be;but it would not have been human.She was still a power,if no longer the direct messenger from Heaven;a general,with much skill and natural aptitude if not the Sent of God;and the ardour of a military career had got into her veins.No doubt she was much more good for that,now,than for sitting by the side of Isabeau d'Arc at Domremy,and working even into a piece of embroidery for the altar,her remembrances and visions of camp and siege and the intoxication of victory.She remained,conscious that she was no longer exactly as of old,to fight not only against the English,but with intimate enemies,far more bitter,whom now she knew,against the ordinary fortune of war,and against that which is a thousand times worse,the hatred and envy,the cruel carelessness,and the malignant schemes of her own countrymen for whom she had fought.

This,so far as we can judge,appears to be the position of Jeanne in the second portion of her career;perhaps only dimly apprehended and at moments,by herself;not much thought of probably by those around her,the wisest of whom had always been sceptical of her divine commission;while the populace never saw any change in her,and believed that at one time as well as at another the Maid was the Maid,and had victory at her command.And no doubt that influence would have endured for some time at least,and her dauntless rush against every obstacle would have carried success with it,had she been able to carry out her plans,and fly forth upon Paris as she had done upon Orleans,carrying on the campaign swiftly,promptly,without pause or uncertainty.Bedford himself said that Paris "would fall at a blow,"if she came on.It had been hard enough,however,to do that,as we have seen,when she was the only hope of France and had the fire of the divine enthusiasm in her veins;but it was still more hard now to mould a young King elated with triumph,beginning to feel the crown safe upon his head,and to feel that if there was still much to gain,there was now a great deal to be lost.The position was complicated and made more difficult for Jeanne by every advantage she had gained.