ead in it, five
or six small slices. The visionary peasant girl cared for none of the
dainty meats. And then she retired to the comfort of a peaceful chamber,
where the little daughter of the house shared her bed: strange return
to the days when Hauvette and Mengette in Domremy lay by her side and
talked as girls love to do, through half the silent night. Perhaps
little Charlotte, too, lay awake with awe to wonder at that other young
head on the pillow, a little while ago shut into the silver helmet, and
shining like the archangel's. The _etat majeur_, the Chevalier d'Aulon,
Jean de Metz, and Bertrand de Poulengy, who had never left her, first
friends and most faithful, and her brother Pierre d'Arc, were lodged in
the same house. It was the last night of April, 1429.

(1) The dates must of course be reckoned by the old style.--
This letter was dispatched from Tours, during her pause
there.

CHAPTER IV -- THE RELIEF OF ORLEANS. MAY 1-8, 1429.

Next morning there was a council of war among the many leaders now
collected within the town. It was the eager desire of Jeanne that an
assault should be made at once, in all the enthusiasm of the moment,
upon the English towers, without waiting even for the arrival of the
little army which she had preceded. But the captains of the defence who
had borne the heat and burden of the day, and who might naturally
enough be irritated by the enthusiasm with which this stranger had been
received, were of a different opinion. I quote here a story, for which
I am told there is no foundation whatever, touching a personage who
probably never existed, so that the reader may take it as he pleases,
with indulgence for the writer's weakness, or indignation at her
credulity. It seems to me, however, to express very naturally a
sentiment which must have existed among the many captains who had been
fighting unsuccessfully for months in defence of the beleaguered city.
A certain Guillaume de Gamache felt himself insulted above all by the
suggestion. "What," he cried, "is the advice of this hussy from the
fields (_une peronnelle de bas lieu_) to be taken against that of a
knight and captain! I will fold up my banner and become again a simple
soldier. I would rather have a nobleman for my master than a woman whom
nobody knows."

Dunois, who was too wise to weaken the forces at his command by such a
quarrel, is said to have done his best to reconcile and soothe the angry
captain.