rush
frantically forth out of sight and hearing.

But the Maid never moved, save to bend her head in reverence as the
Thrice Holy Name was proclaimed, and as the drops of holy water
fell upon her brow. To me it seemed almost like sacrilege, in face
of that pure and holy calm, to entertain for one moment a doubt of
the origin of her mission. Yet it may be that the test was a wise
one; for De Baudricourt and those about him watched it with close
and breathless wonder, and one and another whispered behind his
hand:

"Of a surety she is no witch. She could never stand thus if there
was aught of evil in her. Truly she is a marvellous Maid. If this
thing be of the Lord, let us not fight against Him."

The trial was over. The Maid received the blessing of the Abbe,
who, if not convinced of the sacredness of her mission, was yet
impotent to prove aught against her. It is strange to me, looking
back at those days, how far less ready of heart the ecclesiastics
were to receive her testimony and recognise in her the messenger of
the Most High than were the soldiers, whether the generals whom she
afterwards came to know, or the men who crowded to fight beneath
her banner. One would have thought that to priests and clergy a
greater grace and power of understanding would have been
vouchsafed; but so far from this, they always held her in doubt and
suspicion, and were her secret foes from first to last.

I made it my task to see her safely home; and as we went, I asked:

"Was it an offence to you, fair Maid, that he should thus seek to
test and try you?"

"Not an offence to me, Seigneur," she answered gently, "but he
should not have had need to do it. For he did hear my confession on
Friday. Therefore he should have known better. It is no offence to
me, save inasmuch as it doth seem a slighting of my Lord."

The people flocked around her as she passed through the streets. It
was wonderful how the common townsfolk believed in her. Already she
was spoken of as a deliverer and a saviour of her country. Nay,
more, her gentleness and sweetness so won upon the hearts of those
who came in contact with her, that mothers prayed of her to come
and visit their sick children, or to speak words of comfort to
those in pain and suffering; and such was the comfort and strength
she brought with her, that there were whispers of miraculous cures
being performed by her. In truth, I have no knowledge myself of any
miracle performed by her, and th