hold out for six weeks, they would march an efficient force to their succour. However, they shortly after quitted the city, stating that they went for supplies, and advising the inhabitants to protect themselves. The partisans of Charles immediately gave it as their opinion, that a deputation should be sent, bearing the submission of Rheims to the king. This was composed of the leading personages of the town, as well ecclesiastics as laity, who, on presenting themselves before the monarch, laid the keys of the holy city at his feet,* when the king, feeling less pleasure in vanquishing than dispensing pardon, freely banished from his mind the recollection of all the evils which the inhabitants of Rheims had done against his person.

On the morning of the 16th of July, Regnaut de Chartres, chancellor of France, made his solemn entry into the city, as archbishop of Rheims. Towards night, Charles VII., for whose reception. every thing had been prepared, proceeded thither in pompous array, accompanied by his whole army, at the head of which rode La Pucelle, who excited universal attention. It was decided that the monarch should be consecrated and crowned on the ensuing day.

* The king was at the Castle of Sept-Seaux, dependent on the archbishopric of Rheims, and situated four leagues from the city, when the deputation presented him the keys.-Lenglet, vol. i. p. 107.

Réné, duke of Bar and Lorraine, brother of the king of Sicily, and the lord de Commercy, hastened to Rheims, at the head of a brilliant cavalcade of nobility, as well as a crowd of warriors, to tender their services to his majesty.

Jeanne d'Arc, who was better acquainted than any one else with the value of time, and who never for a moment lost sight of that grand object-a general reconciliation throughout the kingdom of France took advantage of the interval between sunrise and the ceremony of the coronation to address the following letter to the duke of Burgundy :

"Lettre de Jehanne la Pucelle au Duc de Bourgoingne.

X

"JHESUS MARIA.

"Hault et redoubte prince, duc de Bourgoigne, Jehanne La Pucelle vous requiert, de par le Roy du ciel, mon droiturier et souverain Seigneur, que le Roy de France et vous faciez bonne paix ferme, qui dure longuement; pardonnez l'un à l'autre de bon cuer entirement, ainsi que doivent faire loyaulx chrétiens, et s'il vous plaist à guerroier si, alez sur les Sarrazins. Prince de Bourgoigne, je vous prie, supplie, et requièrs, tant humblement, que requerir vous puisque ne guerroiez plus ou [au] saint royaume de France, et faittes retraire incontinent et briefment voz gens qui sont en aucunes places et fortresses dud: saint royaume; et de la part du gentil

roy de France, il est prest de faire paix à vous, sauvre son honneur s'il ne tient en vous, et vous fais à savoir, de par le Roy du ciel, mon droiturier et souverain Seigneur, pour votre bien et pour votre honneur, et sur voz vie, que vous n'y gaignerez point bataille à l'encontre des loyaulx François, et que tous ceulx qui guerroient ou [au] saint royaume de France guerroient contre le roy Jhus [Jesus], Roy du ciel et de tout le monde, mon droiturier et souverain Seigneur; et vous prie et requiers, à jointes mains, que ne faittes nulle bataille, ne guerroiez contre nous, vous, vos gens, ou subgiez; et croiez seurement que quelque nombre de gens que amenez contre nous, qu'ilz n'y gaigneront mie, et sera grant pitié de la grant bataille et du sang quy y sera respendu de ceulx qui y vendront [viendront] contre nous; et ce trois sepmaines que je vous avoye escript, et envoié bonnes lettres par ung herault que feussiez au sacre du roy qui aujourduy dimenche XVIIme jour de ce present mois de Juillet, ce fait en la cité de Reims, dont je n'ay eu point de reponse ne nouy oncques puiz nouvelles dud: herault. Dieu vous commens, et soit garde de vous s'il luy plaist, et prie Dieu qu'il y mette bonne paix. Escript aud: lieu de Reims, led: XVIIme jour de Juillet.*

A

The above letter, dictated by La Pucelle, was discovered in the archives of Lisle, and is peculiarly interesting, as from it the precise period of the coronation of Charles VII. is. identified -a date hitherto unknown. This document is penned in Gothic characters, with many abbreviations, but perfectly legible. It is folded in a similar manner to our ordinary letters

"JESUS MARIA.

"High and redoubted prince, duke of Burgundy, Jeanne La Pucelle requires you, in behalf of the King of heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, that the king of France and you enter into a good and firm peace that may last long, forgive one another entirely and in good heart, as ought to do loyal Christians; and if it pleases you to go to war, then go against the Saracens. Prince of Burgundy, I pray, supplicate, and require you, most humbly, not to continue longer any warfare in the saintly kingdom of France, and cause to march back incontinent and briefly your people who occupy any places or fortresses of the aforesaid saintly kingdom; and on the part of the gentil king of France, he is ready to make peace with you, preserving his honour: it therefore rests with you, and he makes known to

of the present day, but completely square; and at the bottom, on the folded side of the epistle, is subscribed, “Au Duc de Bourgoingne."

The duke of Burgundy despised this communication, as issuing from a person of such base extraction; and when Charles VII. sent his ambassadors, La Pucelle predicted, that peace would never be restored but at the point of the lance; that is to say, after he should have witnessed the prosperity of the king. This statement was acknowledged and scrupulously examined during the process of Jeanne's condemnation.—Lenglet, vol. i. pp. 112, 113.

you, in behalf of the King of heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, for your good and for your honour, and upon your life, that you will gain no battle upon encountering the loyal French, and that all such as war in the saintly kingdom of France make war against the King Jesus, King of heaven and the whole world, my rightful and sovereign Lord; and I pray and require you with joined hands, not to give battle nor enter into warfare against us, you or your people or subjects; and assuredly believe, that whatsoever number of people you bring against us, they will gain nothing, and it will be a great pity to have a battle, and that the blood should be shed of those who shall come there against us and three weeks past did I write and sent you good letters by an herald; why are you not at the coronation of the king, which takes place this day, Sunday the seventeenth day of the present month of July, in the city of Rheims; to the which [letter] I have had no answer, nor have since received any news of the herald aforesaid. To God's holy keeping I commend you, if it so pleases him, and pray God that he restore a good peace. Written at the said place of Rheims, the said seventeenth day of July."

The princes, prelates, and all the barons and knights, who had accompanied Charles, were assembled in the cathedral. La Pucelle, stationed near the grand altar, and holding her banner, attracted the