cheme the royal consent was obtained, and the
Duke of Alencon was placed in command of a small force of soldiers.
Joan directed the expedition, and it was ordered that nothing should
be done without the sanction of the Maid.

In a letter, dated the 8th June, 1429, written by the young Count of
Laval, who met Joan of Arc in Selles in Berri, the place of rendezvous
for the expedition, is a pleasant notice of the impression the heroine
caused him. He describes her as being completely armed, except that
her head was bare. She entertained the Count and his brother at
Selles. 'She ordered some wine,' he writes, 'and told me that I should
soon drink wine with her in Paris.' He adds that it was marvellous to
see and hear her. He also describes her leaving Selles that same
evening for Romorantin, with a portion of her troops. 'We saw her,' he
writes, 'clothed all in white armour excepting her head; her charger,
a great black one, plunged and reared at the door of her lodging, so
that she could not mount him. Then she said, "Lead him to the Cross,"
which cross stood in front of the church on the high road. And then he
stood quite still before the cross, and she mounted him; then as she
was riding away she turned her face to the people who were standing
near the door of the church; in her clear woman's voice she
said:--"You priests and clergy, make processions, and pray to God for
our success." Then she gave the word to advance, and with her banner
borne by a handsome page, and with her little battle-axe in her hand,
she rode away.'

The church before which this scene took place at Selles-sur-Cher still
exists, a fine massive building, dating from between the eleventh and
thirteenth centuries; but the old cross that stood before it, to which
Joan of Arc's black charger was led, has long ago disappeared.

In my opinion, this graphic description of the Maid of Orleans,
written by Guy de Laval to his parents, is the best that has come down
to our day of the heroine. There is to us a freshness about it which
proves how deeply the writer must have been stirred by that wonderful
character; it shows too that, with all her intensely religious and
mystic temperament, Joan of Arc had a good part of sprightliness and
_bonhomie_ in her character, which endeared her to those whose good
fortune it was to meet her.

The incident of the black charger standing so still beside the cross,
and the figure of the Maid, mystic, wonderful, in her whi