g in a black cloud that nearly hid those other
two from sight, and prodded them both, and jabbed them and speared them
and spiked them, and made them bellow and shriek, and shriek and bellow;
and here they came roaring through the village like a hurricane, and
took the funeral procession right in the center, and sent that section
of it sprawling, and galloped over it, and the rest scattered apart and
fled screeching in every direction, every person with a layer of bees on
him, and not a rag of that funeral left but the corpse; and finally
the bull broke for the river and jumped in, and when they fished Uncle
Laxart out he was nearly drowned, and his face looked like a pudding
with raisins in it. And then he turned around, this old simpleton, and
looked a long time in a dazed way at Joan where she had her face in a
cushion, dying, apparently, and says:

"What do you reckon she is laughing at?"

And old D'Arc stood looking at her the same way, sort of absently
scratching his head; but had to give it up, and said he didn't
know--"must have been something that happened when we weren't noticing."

Yes, both of those old people thought that that tale was pathetic;
whereas to my mind it was purely ridiculous, and not in any way valuable
to any one. It seemed so to me then, and it seems so to me yet. And as
for history, it does not resemble history; for the office of history is
to furnish serious and important facts that teach; whereas this strange
and useless event teaches nothing; nothing that I can see, except not
to ride a bull to a funeral; and surely no reflecting person needs to be
taught that.

37 Again to Arms

NOW THESE were nobles, you know, by decree of the King!--these precious
old infants. But they did not realize it; they could not be called
conscious of it; it was an abstraction, a phantom; to them it had no
substance; their minds could not take hold of it. No, they did not
bother about their nobility; they lived in their horses. The horses were
solid; they were visible facts, and would make a mighty stir in Domremy.
Presently something was said about the Coronation, and old D'Arc said
it was going to be a grand thing to be able to say, when they got home,
that they were present in the very town itself when it happened. Joan
looked troubled, and said:

"Ah, that reminds me. You were here and you didn't send me word. In the
town, indeed! Why, you could have sat with the other nobles, and been
welcome