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castles in the air so fast and so high that we could hardly keep up with him. Then all of a sudden all the joy went out of his face and misery took its place, and he said:

ā€œOh, dear, it is all a mistake, it will never come true. I forgot that foolish business at Toul. I have kept out of her sight as much as I could, all these weeks, hoping she would forget that and forgive itā€”but I know she never will. She canā€™t, of course. And, after all, I wasnā€™t to blame. I did say she promised to marry me, but they put me up to it and persuaded me. I swear they did!ā€ The vast creature was almost crying. Then he pulled himself together and said, remorsefully, ā€œIt was the only lie Iā€™ve ever told, andā€”ā€

He was drowned out with a chorus of groans and outraged exclamations; and before he could begin again, one of Dā€™Aulonā€™s liveried servants appeared and said we were required at headquarters. We rose, and Noļæ½l said:

ā€œThereā€”what did I tell you? I have a presentimentā€”the spirit of prophecy is upon me. She is going to appoint him, and we are to go there and do him homage. Come along!ā€

But the Paladin was afraid to go, so we left him.

When we presently stood in the presence, in front of a crowd of glittering officers of the army, Joan greeted us with a winning smile, and said she appointed all of us to places in her household, for she wanted her old friends by her. It was a beautiful surprise to have ourselves honored like this when she could have had people of birth and consequence instead, but we couldnā€™t find our tongues to say so, she was become so great and so high above us now. One at a time we stepped forward and each received his warrant from the hand of our chief, Dā€™Aulon. All of us had honorable places; the two knights stood highest; then Joanā€™s two brothers; I was first page and secretary, a young gentleman named Raimond was second page; Noļæ½l was her messenger; she had two heralds, and also a chaplain and almoner, whose name was Jean Pasquerel. She had previously appointed a maļæ½tre dā€™hļæ½tel and a number of domestics. Now she looked around and said:

ā€œBut where is the Paladin?ā€

The Sieur Bertrand said:

ā€œHe thought he was not sent for, your Excellency.ā€

ā€œNow that is not well. Let him be called.ā€

The Paladin entered humbly enough. He ventured no farther than just within the door. He stopped there, looking embarrassed and afraid. Then Joan spoke pleasantly, and said:

ā€œI watched you on the road. You began badly, but improved. Of old you were a fantastic talker, but there is a man in you, and I will bring it out.ā€ It was fine to see the Paladinā€™s face light up when she said that. ā€œWill you follow where I lead?ā€

ā€œInto the fire!ā€ he said; and I said to myself, ā€œBy the ring of that, I think she has turned this braggart into a hero. It is another of her miracles, I make no doubt of it.ā€

ā€œI believe you,ā€ said Joan. ā€œHereā€”take my banner. You will ride with me in every field, and when France is saved, you will give it me back.ā€

He took the banner, which is now the most precious of the memorials that remain of Joan of Arc, and his voice was unsteady with emotion when he said:

ā€œIf I ever disgrace this trust, my comrades here will know how to do a friendā€™s office upon my body, and this charge I lay upon them, as knowing they will not fail me.ā€

Chapter 11 The War March Is Begun

NO L and I went back togetherā€”silent at first, and impressed.

Finally Noļæ½l came up out of his thinkings and said:

ā€œThe first shall be last and the last firstā€”thereā€™s authority for this surprise. But at the same time wasnā€™t it a lofty hoist for our big bull!ā€

ā€œIt truly was; I am not over being stunned yet. It was the greatest place in her gift.ā€

ā€œYes, it was. There are many generals, and she can create more; but there is only one Standard-Bearer.ā€

ā€œTrue. It is the most conspicuous place in the army, after her own.ā€

ā€œAnd the most coveted and honorable. Sons of two dukes tried to get it, as we know. And of all people in the world, this majestic windmill carries it off. Well, isnā€™t it a gigantic promotion, when you come to look at it!ā€

ā€œThereā€™s no doubt about it. Itā€™s a kind of copy of Joanā€™s own in miniature.ā€

ā€œI donā€™t know how to account for itā€”do you?ā€

ā€œYesā€”without any trouble at allā€”that is, I think I do.ā€

Noļæ½l was surprised at that, and glanced up quickly, as if to see if I was in earnest. He said:

ā€œI thought you couldnā€™t be in earnest, but I see you are. If you can make me understand this puzzle, do it. Tell me what the explanation is.ā€

ā€œI believe I can. You have noticed that our chief knight says a good many wise things and has a thoughtful head on his shoulders. One day, riding along, we were talking about Joanā€™s great talents, and he said, ā€˜But, greatest of all her gifts, she has the seeing eye.ā€™ I said, like an unthinking fool, ā€˜The seeing eye?ā€”I shouldnā€™t count on that for muchā€”I suppose we all have it.ā€™ ā€˜No,ā€™ he said; ā€˜very few have it.ā€™ Then he explained, and made his meaning clear. He said the common eye sees only the outside of things, and judges by that, but the seeing eye pierces through and reads the heart and the soul, finding there capacities which the outside didnā€™t indicate or promise, and which the other kind of eye couldnā€™t detect. He said the mightiest military genius must fail and come to nothing if it have not the seeing eyeā€”that is to say, if it cannot read men and select its subordinates with an infallible judgment. It sees as by intuition that this man is good for strategy, that one for dash and daredevil assault, the other for patient bulldog persistence, and it appoints each to his right place and wins, while the commander without the seeing eye would give to each the otherā€™s place and lose. He was right about Joan, and I saw it. When she was a child and the tramp came one night, her father and all of us took him for a rascal, but she saw the honest man through the rags. When I dined with the governor of Vaucouleurs so long ago, I saw nothing in our two knights, though I sat with them and talked with them two hours; Joan was there five minutes, and neither spoke with them nor heard them speak, yet she marked them for men of worth and fidelity, and they have confirmed her judgment. Whom has she sent for to take charge of this thundering rabble of new recruits at Blois, made up of old disbanded Armagnac raiders, unspeakable hellions, every one? Why, she has sent for Satan himselfā€”that is to say, La Hireā€”that military hurricane, that godless swashbuckler, that lurid conflagration of blasphemy, that Vesuvius of profanity, forever in eruption. Does he know how to deal with that mob of roaring devils? Better than any man that lives; for he is the head devil of this world his own self, he is the match of the whole of them combined, and probably the father of most of them. She places him in temporary command until she can get to Blois herselfā€”and then! Why, then she will certainly take them in hand personally, or I donā€™t know her as well as I ought to, after all these years of intimacy. That will be a sight to seeā€”that fair spirit in her white armor, delivering her will to that muck-heap, that rag-pile, that abandoned refuse of perdition.ā€

ā€œLa Hire!ā€ cried Noļæ½l, ā€œour hero of all these yearsā€”I do want to see that man!ā€

ā€œI too. His name stirs me just as it did when I was a little boy.ā€

ā€œI want to hear him swear.ā€

ā€œOf course, I would rather hear him swear than another man pray. He is the frankest man there is, and the naļæ½vest. Once when he was rebuked for pillaging on his raids, he said it was nothing. Said he, ā€˜If God the Father were a soldier, He would rob.ā€™ I judge he is the right man to take temporary charge there at Blois. Joan has cast the seeing eye upon him, you see.ā€

ā€œWhich brings us back to where we started. I have an honest affection for the Paladin, and not merely because he is a good fellow, but because he is my childā€”I made him what he is, the windiest blusterer and most catholic liar in the kingdom. Iā€™m glad of his luck, but I hadnā€™t the seeing eye. I shouldnā€™t have chosen him for the most dangerous post in the army. I should have placed him in the rear to kill the wounded and violate the dead.ā€

ā€œWell, we shall see. Joan probably knows what is in him better than we do. And Iā€™ll give you another idea. When a person in Joan of Arcā€™s position tells a man he is brave, he believes it; and believing it is enough; in fact, to believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.ā€

ā€œNow youā€™ve hit it!ā€ cried Noļæ½l. ā€œSheā€™s got the creating mouth as well as the seeing eye! Ah, yes, that is the thing. France was cowed and a coward; Joan of Arc has spoken, and France is marching, with her head up!ā€

I was summoned now to write a letter from Joanā€™s dictation. During the next day and night our several uniforms were made by the tailors, and our new armor provided. We were beautiful to look upon now, whether clothed for peace or war. Clothed for peace, in costly stuffs and rich colors, the Paladin was a tower dyed with the glories of the sunset; plumed and sashed and iron-clad for war, he was a still statelier thing to look at.

Orders had been issued for the march toward Blois. It was a clear, sharp, beautiful morning. As our showy great company trotted out in column, riding two and two, Joan and the Duke of Alenļæ½on in the lead, Dā€™Aulon and the big standard-bearer next, and so on, we made a handsome spectacle, as you may well imagine; and as we plowed through the cheering crowds, with Joan bowing her plumed head to left and right and the sun glinting from her silver mail, the spectators realized that the curtain was rolling up before their eyes upon the first act of a prodigious drama, and their rising hopes were expressed in an enthusiasm that increased with each moment, until at last one seemed to even physically feel the concussion of the huzzas as well as hear them. Far down the street we heard the softened strains of wind-blown music, and saw a cloud of lancers moving, the sun glowing with a subdued light upon the massed armor, but striking bright upon the soaring lance-headsā€”a vaguely luminous nebula, so to speak, with a constellation twinkling above itā€”and that was our guard of honor. It joined us, the procession was complete, the first war-march of Joan of Arc was begun, the curtain was up.

Chapter 12 Joan Puts Heart in Her Army

WE WERE at Blois three days. Oh, that camp, it is one of the treasures of my memory! Order? There was no more order among those brigands than there is among the wolves and the hyenas. They went roaring and drinking about, whooping, shouting, swearing, and entertaining themselves with all manner of rude and riotous horse-play; and the place

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