cognise in her a God-sent
messenger, whom they would delight to follow and to honour. Yet
when I walked out upon the following morning--a sunny first of
May--to have a good look round at the position of the fortifications,
the ring of English bastilles to the north, the blockading towers
upon the southern bank, I was quickly aware of a great deal of talk
going on amongst the soldiers and the officers which was by no means
favourable to the cause of the Maid.

Voices were hushed somewhat at my approach, for though none knew
me, I was of course a stranger, and therefore likely to have
entered the town in the train of the Maid, who had yesterday made
her appearance there. But I heard enough to be sure that what the
Treasurer had said last evening was likely to be true. The soldiers
were disposed to scoff at being led by a woman, and the officers to
grumble at having had to bear all the burden of the long siege, and
then when the King did send an army for the relief, to send it
under the command of this Maid, who would bear away the honour and
glory which otherwise all might have shared.

From their point of view, perhaps, this discontent was not
unreasonable; but as I looked upon the works around me, I marvelled
how it had been possible for the English, unprotected as they must
have originally been, to erect these great towers for their own
shelter, and from which to batter the town with their cannon and
great stone balls, when the French in great numbers and protected
by strong walls, ought to have been able to sally forth continually
and so to harass them that the construction of such buildings
should have been impossible.

The great Dunois had shown considerable acumen. He had himself
destroyed all the suburbs of the town which lay without the walls,
so that the English might find no shelter there, and when they had
effected a lodgment on the south side of the river, he had
destroyed the greater part of the bridge, thus making it impossible
for the enemy to cross and take possession of the town. But he had
not stopped the erection of those threatening towers circling round
the city to the north, nor the construction of those still stronger
blockading fortresses on the south side, Les Tourelles guarding the
fragment of the broken bridge, and Les Augustins not far away.

When I spoke to one grizzled old soldier about it, he shrugged his
shoulders and made reply:

"What would you? Those English are helped of the dev