, nor believed that I am sent of
Him."

"How know you the thing of which you speak, girl?" asked De
Baudricourt, startled at the firmness of her speech.

"My voices have told me," she answered; "voices that cannot lie.
The French have met with disaster. The English have triumphed, and
I still waste my time in idleness here! How long is this to
continue, Robert de Baudricourt?"

A new note had come into her voice--the note of the general who
commands. We heard it often enough later; but this was the first
time I had noted it. How would De Baudricourt take it?

"Girl," he said, "I will send forth a courier at once to ride with
all speed to the westward. If this thing be so, he will quickly
meet some messenger with the news. If it be as you have said, if
this battle has been fought and lost, then will I send you forth
without a day's delay to join the King at Chinon."

"So be it," answered the Maid; and turned herself to the chapel,
where she spent the night in prayer.

It was Bertrand who rode forth in search of tidings, his heart
burning within him. It was he who nine days later entered
Vaucouleurs again, weary and jaded, but with a great triumph light
in his eyes. He stood before De Baudricourt and spoke.

"It is even as the Maid hath said. Upon the very day when we
returned to Vaucouleurs, the English--a small handful of
men--overthrew at Rouvray a large squadron of the French, utterly
routing and well-nigh destroying them. The English were but a small
party, convoying herrings to the besiegers of Orleans. The ground
was strewn with herrings after the fight, which men call the Battle
of the Herrings. Consternation reigns in the hearts of the
French--an army flies before a handful! The Maid spake truly; the
need is desperate. If help reach not the Dauphin soon, all will be
lost!"

"Then let the Maid go!" thundered the old man, roused at last like
an angry lion; "and may the God she trusts in guard and keep her,
and give to her the victory!"

CHAPTER V. HOW THE MAID JOURNEYED TO CHINON.

So the thing had come to pass at last--as she had always said it
must. Robert de Baudricourt was about to send her to the Court of
the Dauphin at Chinon. The weary days of waiting were at an end.
She was to start forthwith; she and her escort were alike ready,
willing, and eager. Her strange mystic faith and lofty courage
seemed to have spread through the ranks of the chosen few who were
to attend her.

I trow, had