p murmur ran through the throng. It was
as if they answered that they needed no other vision than that of
the Maid herself.

"If then the Lord be with us, must we not show ourselves worthy of
His holy presence in our midst? O my friends, since I have been
with you these few days, my heart has been pained and grieved by
that which I have heard and seen. Oaths and blasphemies fall from
your lips, and you scarce know it yourselves. Drunkenness and vice
prevail. O my friends, let this no longer be amongst us! Let us
cleanse ourselves from all impurities; let our conversation be yea,
yea, nay, nay. Let none take the name of the Lord in vain, nor soil
His holy cause by vice and uncleanness. O let us all, day by day,
as the sun rises anew each morning, assemble to hear Mass, and to
receive the Holy Sacrament. Let every man make his confession. Holy
priests are with us to hear all, and to give absolution. Let us
start forth upon the morrow purified and blessed of God, and let us
day by day renew that holy cleansing and blessing, that the Lord
may indeed be with us and rest amongst us, and that His heart be
not grieved and burdened by that which He shall see and hear
amongst those to whom He has promised His help and blessing!"

Thus she spoke; and a deep silence fell upon all, in the which it
seemed to me the fall of a pin might have been heard. The Maid sat
quite still for a moment, her own head bent as though in prayer.
Then she lifted it, and a radiant smile passed over her face, a
smile as of assurance and thankful joy. She raised her hand and
waved it, almost as though she blessed, whilst she greeted her
soldiers, and then she turned her horse, the crowd making way for
her in deep reverential silence, and rode towards her own lodging,
where she remained shut up in her own room for the rest of the day.

But upon the following morning a strange thing had happened. Every
single camp follower--all the women and all the disorderly rabble
that hangs upon the march of an army--had disappeared. They had
slunk off in the night, and were utterly gone. The soldiers were
gathered in the churches to hear Mass. All that could do so
attended where it was known the Maid would be, and when she had
received the Sacrament herself, hundreds crowded to do the like;
and I suppose there were thousands in the city that day, who,
having confessed and received absolution, received the pledge of
the Lord's death, though perhaps some of them had