Then was the might of the maid proved, for no sooner had her standard touched the walls of the city than the town was saved. Soldiers, who had scoffed or stood aside, now joined her. Thus was she able to march through the land in triumph to the city of Reims, where it was the custom to crown the Kings of France, and in the host there marched the Dauphin. In that city, she crowned the King, and the English fell back at the terror of her name. Then kneeling before the King, she said, "O gentle King, the pleasure of God is done, would it were His pleasure that I might go and keep sheep once more with my sisters and my brothers. They would be rejoiced to see me again." The King dared not let her go, yet she had many enemies, for the lords of France did not care to think that she had led their armies. To their bitter shame, they made little effort to save her from the English and she was burnt as a witch. From that day, the English gradually lost all France save Calais. So the victories of Henry V were of no avail and there was much poverty in England and murmuring against the rulers. CHAPTER XXV NEW WORLDS The barons came back from France. They were practised in the art of war and they turned their homes into strong forts and their servants into soldiers. Of these, they found many who were well versed in arms and ready to fight. They gave them food and lodging for their services and liveries to distinguish them from the followers of their neighbours and they no longer fought for the King but each for his own gain. The squires in the manors and the merchants in the towns stood in awe of these unruly subjects of the realm, but against them there was no remedy, and every man was forced to choose out a lord to protect him. Of the long wars which these men waged, fighting for the rival princes of York and Lancaster, for the white and the red rose, and of the havoc that they wrought in the land, there are many stories. Though the barons made war on one another, the citizens held their markets and fairs and worked with skill in their trades. Foreigners desired to buy, and they were anxious for peace with a country that could give them the finest wool. More ships were built to cross the narrow seas, and they were free to come and go, since England watched them from her two eyes, Calais and Dover. The merchants began to use more of their own good wool and many skilled craftsmen were needed for cloth making. First the wool was sorted and the coarse taken from the fine, then it was dyed, orange, red, green, russet made from madder, or blue from woad, a flower, which grew abundantly in France. The carder came next and the spinster spun it into long threads on her distaff. The weaver next doth warp and weave the chain, Whilst Puss, his cat, stands mewing for a skein.