ar as large as possible. It has even been
placed as low as three thousand. Among the officers who accompanied
the Maid was a Gascon knight, named La Hire, half freebooter, half
condottiere, a brave and reckless soldier, of whom it is recorded
that, before making a raid, he would offer up the following prayer:--

'I pray my God to do for La Hire what La Hire would do for Him, if He
were Captain and La Hire was God.'

From having been a mighty swearer, owing to Joan of Arc's influence La
Hire broke off this habit, but, in order to give him some scope for
venting his temper, Joan allowed him to swear by his stick.

These are but trivial details: still, they are of interest as showing
what influence a simple village maiden like Joan was able to exert on
those who, from their position and habits of life, might have been
thought to be the last to tolerate such interference. So changed, it
is said, had this rough warrior, La Hire, and many of his
fellow-soldiers become in their habits while with the Maid, that they
were happy to be able to kneel by the side of the sainted maiden and
partake in her Lord's Sacrament of the Eucharist; and then to confess
themselves to her good father confessor, Peton de Xaintrailles, the
Marshal de Boussac, and the Seigneur de Rais.

Joan had the following letter despatched to the Duke of Bedford:--

'In the name of Jesus and Mary--You, King of England; and you, Duke of
Bedford [Bethfort], who call yourself Regent of France; you, William
de la Pole; you, Earl of Suffolk; you, John Lord Talbot [Thalebot];
and you, Thomas Lord Scales, who call yourselves Lieutenants of the
said Bedford, in the name of the King of Heaven, render the keys of
all the good towns which you have taken and violated in France, to the
Maid sent hither by the King of Heaven. She is ready to make peace if
you will consent to return and to pay for what you have taken. And all
of you, soldiers, and archers, and men-at-arms, now before Orleans,
return to your country, in God's name. If this is not done, King of
England, I, as a leader in war, whenever I shall meet with your people
in France, will oblige them to go whether they be willing or not; and
if they go not, they will perish; but if they will depart I will
pardon them. I have come from the King of Heaven to drive you out
[_bouter_] of France. And do not imagine that you will ever
permanently hold France, for the true heir, King Charles, shall
possess it, for it is Go