ause
I am not a gentleman. That is the whole reason. What can one private
soldier do in a contest like this? Nothing. He is not permitted to
rise from the ranks. If I were a gentleman would I remain here? Not one
moment. I can save France--ah, you may laugh, but I know what is in me, I
know what is hid under this peasant cap. I can save France, and I stand
ready to do it, but not under these present conditions. If they want me,
let them send for me; otherwise, let them take the consequences; I shall
not budge but as an officer."

"Alas, poor France--France is lost!" said Pierre d'Arc.

"Since you sniff so at others, why don't you go to the wars yourself,
Pierre d'Arc?"

"Oh, I haven't been sent for, either. I am no more a gentleman than you.
Yet I will go; I promise to go. I promise to go as a private under your
orders--when you are sent for."

They all laughed, and the Dragon-fly said:

"So soon? Then you need to begin to get ready; you might be called for
in five years--who knows? Yes, in my opinion you'll march for the wars in
five years."

"He will go sooner," said Joan. She said it in a low voice and musingly,
but several heard it.

"How do you know that, Joan?" said the Dragon-fly, with a surprised
look. But Jean d'Arc broke in and said:

"I want to go myself, but as I am rather young yet, I also will wait,
and march when the Paladin is sent for."

"No," said Joan, "he will go with Pierre."

She said it as one who talks to himself aloud without knowing it, and
none heard it but me. I glanced at her and saw that her knitting-needles
were idle in her hands, and that her face had a dreamy and absent look
in it. There were fleeting movements of her lips as if she might be
occasionally saying parts of sentences to herself. But there was no
sound, for I was the nearest person to her and I heard nothing. But I
set my ears open, for those two speeches had affected me uncannily, I
being superstitious and easily troubled by any little thing of a strange
and unusual sort.

Noel Rainguesson said:

"There is one way to let France have a chance for her salvation. We've
got one gentleman in the commune, at any rate. Why can't the Scholar
change name and condition with the Paladin? Then he can be an officer.
France will send for him then, and he will sweep these English and
Burgundian armies into the sea like flies."

I was the Scholar. That was my nickname, because I could read and write.
There was a chorus of