ill see you at close quarters.'

The English then rode to Meun, and cannonaded the bridge-fort, which was
held by the French. They hoped to take the bridge, cross it, march to
Beaugency, and relieve the besieged there. But that very night Beaugency
surrendered to the Maid! She then bade her army march on the English,
who were retreating to Paris as soon as they heard how Beaugency had
yielded. But how was the Maid to find the English? 'Ride forward,' she
cried, 'and you shall have a sure guide.' They had a guide, and a
strange one.

The English were marching towards Paris, near Pathay, when their
_eclaireurs_ (who beat the country on all sides) came in with the news
that the French were following. But the French knew not where the
English were, because the deserted and desolate country was overgrown
with wood.

Talbot decided to do what the English did at Crecy, where they won so
glorious a victory. He lined the hedges in a narrow way with five
hundred archers of his best, and he sent a galloper to bring thither the
rest of his army. On came the French, not seeing the English in ambush.
In a few minutes they would have been shot down, and choked the pass
with dying men and horses. But now was the moment for the strange guide.

A stag was driven from cover by the French, and ran blindly among the
ambushed English bowmen. Not knowing that the French were so near, and
being archers from Robin Hood's country, who loved a deer, they raised a
shout, and probably many an arrow flew at the stag. The French
_eclaireurs_ heard the cry, they saw the English, and hurried back with
the news.

'Forward!' cried the Maid; 'if they were hung to the clouds we have
them. To-day the gentle king will gain such a victory as never yet did
he win.'[20]

The French dashed into the pass before Talbot had secured it. Fastolf
galloped up, but the English thought that he was in flight; the captain
of the advanced guard turned his horse about and made off. Talbot was
taken, Fastolf fled, 'making more sorrow than ever yet did man.' The
French won a great victory. They needed their spurs, as the Maid had
told them that they would, to follow their flying foes. The English lost
some 3,000 men. In the evening Talbot, as a prisoner, was presented to
the Duc d'Alencon.

'You did not expect this in the morning?' said the duke.

'Fortune of war!' said Talbot.

So ended the day of Pathay, and the adventure of the Strange Guide.

HOW THE MAID HA