uld have imagined that all the previous ten
thousand sackings and burnings in France had been but fables, and this
one the only fact. It is always the way; words will answer as long as it
is only a person's neighbor who is in trouble, but when that person gets
into trouble himself, it is time that the King rise up and do something.

The big event filled us young people with talk, too. We let it flow in
a steady stream while we tended the flocks. We were beginning to feel
pretty important now, for I was eighteen and the other youths were from
one to four years older--young men, in fact. One day the Paladin was
arrogantly criticizing the patriot generals of France and said:

"Look at Dunois, Bastard of Orleans--call him a general! Just put me in
his place once--never mind what I would do, it is not for me to say,
I have no stomach for talk, my way is to act and let others do the
talking--but just put me in his place once, that's all! And look at
Saintrailles--pooh! and that blustering La Hire, now what a general that
is!"

It shocked everybody to hear these great names so flippantly handled,
for to us these renowned soldiers were almost gods. In their far-off
splendor they rose upon our imaginations dim and huge, shadowy and
awful, and it was a fearful thing to hear them spoken of as if they were
mere men, and their acts open to comment and criticism. The color rose
in Joan's face, and she said:

"I know not how any can be so hardy as to use such words regarding these
sublime men, who are the very pillars of the French state, supporting it
with their strength and preserving it at daily cost of their blood. As
for me, I could count myself honored past all deserving if I might be
allowed but the privilege of looking upon them once--at a distance, I
mean, for it would not become one of my degree to approach them too
near."

The Paladin was disconcerted for a moment, seeing by the faces around
him that Joan had put into words what the others felt, then he pulled
his complacency together and fell to fault-finding again. Joan's brother
Jean said:

"If you don't like what our generals do, why don't you go to the great
wars yourself and better their work? You are always talking about going
to the wars, but you don't go."

"Look you," said the Paladin, "it is easy to say that. Now I will tell
you why I remain chafing here in a bloodless tranquillity which my
reputation teaches you is repulsive to my nature. I do not go bec