ercely than he
who had reviled the Maid. For on his head lay all the blame of the
taking of the boulevard. To rear of him rang the shouts of them of
Orleans, who had crossed the broken arch by the beam; but he never turned
about, and our men reeled back before him. Then there shone behind him
the flames from the blazing barge; and so, black against that blaze, he
smote and slew, not knowing that the drawbridge began to burn.

On this the Maid ran forth, and cried to him--

"Rends-toi, rends-toi! Yield thee, Glacidas; yield thee, for I stand in
much sorrow for thy soul's sake."

Then, falling on her knees, her face shining transfigured in that fierce
light, she prayed him thus--

"Ah! Glacidas, thou didst call me ribaulde, but I have sorrow for thy
soul. Ah! yield thee, yield thee to ransom"; and the tears ran down her
cheeks, as if a saint were praying for a soul in peril.

Not one word spoke Glasdale: he neither saw nor heard. But the levelled
spears at his side flew up, a flame caught his crest, making a plume of
fire, and with a curse he cast his axe among the throng, and the man who
stood in front of it got his death. Glasdale turned about as he threw;
he leaped upon the burning drawbridge, where the last of his men were
huddled in flight, and lo! beneath his feet it crashed; down he plunged
through smoke and flame, and the stream below surged up as bridge and
flying men went under in one ruin.

The Maid gave a cry that rang above the roar of fire and water.

"Saints! will no man save him?" she shrieked, looking all around her on
the faces of the French.

A mad thought leaped up in my mind.

"Unharness me!" I cried; and one who stood by me undid the clasps of my
light jaseran. I saw a head unhelmeted, I saw a hand that clutched at a
floating beam. I thought of the Maid's desire, and of the ransom of so
great a squire as Glasdale, and then I threw my hands up to dive, and
leaped head foremost into the water.

Deep down I plunged, and swam far under water, to avoid a stroke from
floating timber, and then I rose and glanced up-stream. All the air was
fiercely lit with the blaze of the burning barge; a hand and arm would
rise, and fall ere I could seize it. A hand was thrown up before me, the
glinting fingers gripping at empty air. I caught the hand, swimming
strongly with the current, for so the man could not clutch at me, and if
a drowning man can be held apart, it is no great skill to save him.