hold the Oise, and so take Compiegne, the better to hold Paris.
And on our side the skill was to cut his army in two, so that from east
of the water of Oise neither men nor victual might come to him.

Having this subtle device of war in her mind, the Maid rode north from
Melun, by the King's good towns, till she came to Compiegne, that was not
yet beleaguered. There they did her all the honour that might be, and
thither came to her standard Messire Jacques de Chabennes, Messire
Rigault de Fontaines, Messire Poton de Xaintrailles, the best knight then
on ground, and many other gentlemen, some four hundred lances in all.
{33} With these lances the Maid consorted to attack Pont l'Eveque by a
night onfall. This is a small but very strong hold, on the Oise, some
six leagues from Compiegne, as you go up the river, and it lies near the
town of Noyon, which was held by the English. In Pont l'Eveque there was
a garrison of a hundred lances of the English, and our skill was to break
on them in the grey of dawn, when men least fear a surprise, and are most
easily taken. By this very device La Hire had seized Compiegne but six
years agone, wherefore our hope was the higher. About five of the clock
on an April day we rode out of Compiegne, a great company,--too great,
perchance, for that we had to do. For our army was nigh a league in
length as it went on the way, nor could we move swiftly, for there were
waggons with us and carts, drawing guns and couleuvrines and powder,
fascines wherewith to fill the fosses, and ladders and double ladders for
scaling the walls. So the captains ordered it to be, for ever since that
day by Melun fosse, when the Saints foretold her captivity, the Maid
submitted herself in all things to the captains, which was never her
manner before.

As we rode slowly, she was now at the head of the line, now in the midst,
now at the rear, wherever was need; and as I rode at her rein, I took
heart to say--

"Madame, it is not thus that we have taken great keeps and holds, in my
country, from our enemies of England."

"Nay," said she, checking her horse to a walk, and smiling on me in the
dusk with her kind eyes. "Then tell me how you order it in your
country."

"Madame," I said, "it was with a little force, and lightly moving, that
Messire Thomas Randolph scaled the Castle rock and took Edinburgh Castle
out of the hands of the English, a keep so strong, and set on a cliff so
perilous, that no man mig