When the King received the crown from the hands of the Archbishop, a
peal of trumpets rang out, with such a mighty volume of sound that the
very roof of the cathedral seemed to shake again. Ingres, in his
striking picture of Joan of Arc, now in the gallery of the Louvre,
represents her standing by the high altar, clad in her white panoply
of shining steel, her banner held on high; below bows in prayer her
confessor, the priest Pasquerel, in his brown robes of the Order of
Augustin; and beyond stand her faithful squire and pages. The
heroine's face is raised, and on it sits a radiant look of mingled
gratitude and triumph. It is a noble idea of a sublime figure.
When the long-drawn-out ceremony came to an end, and after the people
had shouted themselves hoarse in crying 'Noel!' and 'Long live King
Charles!'--Joan, who had remained by the King throughout the day,
knelt at his feet and, according to one chronicle, said these words:
'Now is finished the pleasure of God, who willed that you should come
to Rheims and receive your crown, proving that you are truly the King,
and no other, to whom belongs this land of France.'
Many besides the King are said to have shed tears at that moment.
That seemed indeed the moment of Joan of Arc's triumph. The _Nunc
Dimittis_ might well have then echoed from her lips; but in the midst
of all the rejoicing and festivity at this time Joan had saddened
thoughts and melancholy forebodings as to the future. While the
people shouted 'Noel!' as she rode through the jubilant streets by the
side of the King, she turned to the Archbishop, and said: 'When I die
I should wish to be buried here among these good and devout people.'
And on the prelate asking her how it was that at such a moment her
mind should set itself on the thought of death, and when she expected
her death to happen, she answered: 'I know not--it will come when God
pleases; but how I would that God would allow me to return to my home,
to my sister and my brothers! For how glad would they be to see me
back again. At any rate,' she added, 'I have done what my Saviour
commanded me to do.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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