om
Vaucouleurs, and an almoner, Brother Jean Pasquerel, an Augustine, that
the Maid's mother sent with us from Puy, for we found her there. And the
Maid has appointed you to go with her, for that you took her part when
men reviled her. And money she has craved from the King; and Messire
Aymar de Puiseux, that was your adversary, is to give you a good horse,
for that you may not walk. And, above all, the Maid has declared to me
that she will bring you back to us unscathed of sword, but, for herself,
she shall be wounded by an arrow under Orleans, yet shall she not die,
but be healed of that wound, and shall lead the King to his sacring at
Rheims. So now, verily, for you I have no fear, but my heart is sore for
the Maid's sake, and her wound."

None the less, she made as if she would dance for joy, and I could have
done as much, not, indeed, that as then I put my faith in prophecies, but
for gladness that I was to take my fortune in the wars. So the hours
passed in great mirth and good cheer. Many things we spoke of, as
concerning the mother of the Maid--how wise she was, yet in a kind of
amazement, and not free from fear, wherefore she prayed constantly for
her child.

Moreover Elliot told me that the jackanapes was now hers of right, for
that the woman, its owner, had been at Puy, but without her man, and had
sold it to her, as to a good mistress, yet with tears at parting. This
news was none of the gladdest to me, for still I feared that tidings of
us might come to Brother Thomas. Howbeit, at last, with a light heart,
though I was leaving Elliot, I went back to the castle. There Aymar de
Puiseux, meeting me, made me the best countenance, and gave me a right
good horse, that I named Capdorat after him, by his good will. And for
my armour, which must needs be light, they gave me a maillet--a coat of
slender mail, which did not gall my old wound. So accoutred, I departed
next day, in good company, to Blois, whence the Maid was to set forth to
Orleans. Marvel it was to find the road so full of bestial--oxen, cows,
sheep, and swine--all gathered, as if to some great market, for the
victualling of Orleans. But how they were to be got through the English
lines into the city men knew not. For the English, by this time, had
girdled the city all about with great bastilles, each joined to other by
sunken ways dug in the earth, wherein were streets, and marts, and
chambers with fires and chimneys, as I have written