gentle maidenly air of dignity
and reserve. And so we came to the house which had been set apart
for her use on her stay, and there we saw, standing at the foot of
the steps which led from the courtyard into the house, a mighty,
mailed figure, the headpiece alone lacking of his full armour, a
carven warrior, as it seemed, with folded arms and bent brows,
gazing upon us as we filed in under the archway, but making no move
to approach us.

I did not need the whisper which ran through the ranks of our
escort to know that this man was the great and valiant La Hire.

As the Maid's charger paused at the foot of the steps, this man
strode forward with his hand upraised as in a salute, and giving
her his arm, he assisted her to alight, and for a few moments the
two stood looking into each other's eyes with mutual recognition,
taking, as it were, each the measure of the other.

The Maid was the first to speak, her eyes lighting with that deep
down, indescribable smile, which she kept for her friends alone.
When I saw that smile in her eyes, as they were upraised to La
Hire's face, all my fears vanished in a moment.

"You are the Dauphin's brave General La Hire, from Orleans," she
said; "I thank you, monsieur, for your courtesy in coming thus to
meet me. For so can we take counsel together how best the enemies
of our country may be overthrown."

"You are the Maid, sent of God and the King for the deliverance of
the realm," answered La Hire, as he lifted her hand to his lips, "I
bid you welcome in the name of Orleans, its soldiers, and its
citizens. For we have been like men beneath a spell--a spell too
strong for us to break. You come to snap the spell, to break the
yoke, and therefore I bid you great welcome on the part of myself
and the citizens and soldiers of Orleans. Without your counsels to
His Majesty, and the aid you have persuaded him to send, the city
must assuredly have fallen ere this. Only the knowledge that help
was surely coming has kept us from surrender."

"I would the help had come sooner, my General," spoke the Maid;
"but soon or late it is one with my Lord, who will give us the
promised victory."

From that moment friendship, warm and true, was established betwixt
the bronzed warrior and the gentle Maid, who took up, as by natural
right, her position of equal--indeed, of superior--in command, not
with any haughty assumption, not with any arrogant words or looks,
but sweetly and simply, as though the