But we have no right to suppose that the Maid took the position of the chief actor in the pageant and stood alone by the side of Charles,as the exigencies of the pictorial art have required her to do.When,however,the ceremony was completed,and he had received on his knees the anointing which separated him as king from every other class of men,and while the lofty vaults echoed with the cries of No?by which the people hailed the completed ceremony,Jeanne could contain herself no longer.The object was attained for which she had laboured and struggled,and overcome every opponent.She stepped forward out of the brilliant crowd,and threw herself at the feet of the now crowned monarch,embracing his knees."Gentle King,"she cried with tears,"now is the pleasure of God fulfilled--whose will it was that I should raise the siege of Orleans and lead you to this city of Rheims to receive your consecration.Now has He shown that you are true King,and that the kingdom of France truly belongs to you alone."Those broken words,her tears,the cry of that profound satisfaction which is almost anguish,the "Lord,now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,"which is so suitable to the lips of the old,so poignant from those of the young,pierced all hearts.It is added that she asked leave to withdraw,her work being done,and that all who saw her were filled with sympathy.It was no doubt the irresistible outburst of a heart too full;and though that fulness was all joy and triumph,yet there was in it a sense of completed work,a rending asunder and tearing away from life,the end of a wonderful and triumphant tale.
There is a considerable controversy as to the precise meaning of that outburst of emotion.Did the Maid mean that her work was over,and her divine mission fulfilled?Was this all that she believed herself to be appointed to do?or did she expect,as she sometimes said,to /bouter/the English out of France altogether?In the one case she ought to have relinquished her work,and in not doing so she acted without the protection of God which had hitherto made her invulnerable.In the other,her "voices,"her inspiration,must have failed her,for her course of triumph went no farther.It is impossible to decide between these contending theories.She did speak in both senses,sometimes declaring that she was to take Paris,sometimes,her intention to /bouter/the English out of the kingdom.At the same time she betrayed a constant conviction that her office had limitations and must come to an end."I will last but a year,"she said to the King and to Alen?on.
The testimony of Dunois seems to be the best we can have on this point.He says in his deposition,made many years after her death:
"Although Jeanne sometimes talked playfully to amuse people,of things concerning the war which were not afterwards accomplished,yet when she spoke seriously of the war,and of her own career and her vocation,she never affirmed anything but that she was sent to raise the siege of Orleans and to lead the King to Rheims to be crowned."If this were so was she wrong in continuing her warfare,and did she place herself in the position of one who goes on her own charges,finding the mission from on high unnecessary?Or in the other case did her inspiration fail her,or were the intrigues of Charles and his Court sufficient to balk the designs of Heaven?We prefer to think that Jeanne's commission concerned only those two things which she accomplished so completely;but that in continuing the war,she acted only as a well inspired and honourable young soldier might,though no longer as the direct messenger of God.She had as much right to do so as to return to her distaff or her needle in her native village;but she became subject to all the ordinary laws of war by so doing,exposed herself to be taken or overthrown like any man-at-arms,and accepted that risk.What is certain is,that every intrigue sprang up again afresh on the evening of that brilliant and triumphant ceremonial,and that from the moment of the accomplishment of her great work the failure of the Maid began.
These intrigues had been in her way since her very first beginning,as has been seen.At Orleans,in the very field as well as in the council chamber and the presence,everything was done to balk her,and to cross her plans,but in vain;she triumphed over every contrivance against her,and broke through the plots,and overcame the plotters.
But after Rheims the combination of dangers became ever greater and greater,and we may say that no merely human general would have had a chance in face of the many and bewildering influences of evil.Charles who was himself,at least at this period of his career,sufficiently indolent and unenterprising to have damped the energies of any commander,was,in addition,surrounded by advisers who had always been impatient and jealous of the interference of Jeanne,and would have cast her off as a witch,or passed her by as an impostor,had that been possible,without permitting her to strike a blow.They had now grudgingly made use of her,or rather,for this is too much to say,had permitted her action where they had no power to restrain it:but they were as little friendly,as malignant in their treatment of the Maid as ever,and more hopeful,now that so much had been done by her means,of being able to shake her off and pursue their fate in their own way.