es had scattered, as I have said, and we had gone back into
Compiegne. "What stroke may France now strike for the Maid?" He hung
his head and plucked at his beard, ere he spoke.

"To be as plain with you as my heart is with myself, Norman," he answered
at last, "deliverance, or hope of deliverance, see I none. The English
have the bird in the cage, and Rouen is not a strength that can be taken
by sudden onslaught. And, were it so, where is our force, in midwinter?
I rather put my faith, that can scarce move mountains, in some subtle
means, if any man might devise them."

"We cannot sit idle here," I said. "And for three long months there will
be no moving of armies in open field."

"And in three months these dogs of false French doctors of Paris will
have tried and condemned the Maid. For my part, I ride with my handful
of spears to the Loire. Perchance there is yet some hope in the King."

"Then I ride with you, granted your goodwill, for I must needs to Tours,
and I have overmuch treasure in my wallet to ride alone."

Indeed, I was now a rich man, more by luck than by valour; and though I
said nought of it, I hoped that my long wooing might now come to a happy
end.

Barthelemy clasped hands gladly on that offer; and not to make a long
tale, he and his men were my escort to Tours, and thence he rode to Sully
to see the King.

I had no heart for glad surprises this time, but having sent on a letter
to my master, by a King's messenger who rode from Compiegne ere we did, I
was expected and welcomed by Elliot and my master, with all the joy that
might be, after our long severance. And in my master's hands I laid my
newly gotten gear, and heard privily from him that, with his goodwill, I
and his daughter might wed so soon as she would.

"For she is pining with grief, and prayer, and fasting, and marriage is
the best remede for such maladies."

Of this grace I was right glad; yet Christmas went by and I dared not
speak, for Elliot seemed set on far other things than mirth, and was ever
and early in the churches, above all when service and prayer were offered
up for the Maid. She was very willing to hear all the tale of the long
siege, and her face, that was thin and wan, unlike her bright countenance
of old, flushed scarlet when she heard how we had bearded and shamed the
noble Duke of Burgundy, and what words Xaintrailles had spoken concerning
his nobleness.

"There is one true knight left in France!" sh