d with them, my child?" spoke Queen Yolande
gently; "they would have decked you in all the colours of the
rainbow, and made you to blaze with jewels; but I would not have it
The Virgin Maid, I told them, should be clad all in white, and my
word prevailed, and thus you see your snowy raiment. I had thought
you would be pleased with it, ma mie."

"Madame, it is beautiful; I have never dreamed of such. It is too
fine, too costly for such as I. I am but a peasant maid--"

"You are the chosen of the King of Heaven, my child. You must think
also of that. You are now the leader of the King's armies. You have
to do honour alike to a Heavenly and an earthly Monarch; and shall
we let our champion go forth without such raiment as is fitting to
her mission?"

Then the Maid bent her head, and answered with sweet gladness:

"If it is thus that the world regards me, I will wear these
trappings with a glad and thankful heart; for in sooth I would seek
to do honour to His Majesty. As for my Lord in the Heavens, I trow
that He doth look beneath such matters of gay adornment; yet even
so, I would have His mission honoured in the sight of all men, and
His messenger fitly arrayed."

So the Maid put on her spotless apparel, and looked more than ever
like a youthful warrior, going forth with stainless shield, in the
quest of chivalrous adventure. The whole Court was entranced by her
beauty, her lofty dignity, her strange air of aloofness from the
world, which made her move amongst them as a thing apart, and
seemed to set a seal upon her every word and act.

When she spoke of the coming strife, and her plans for the relief
of the beleaguered city, her eyes would shine, a ringing note of
authority would be heard in her voice, she would fearlessly enter
into debate with the King and his Ministers, and tell them that
which she was resolved to do, whether they counselled it or no. At
such moments she appeared gifted with a power impossible rightly to
describe. Without setting herself up in haughtiness, she yet
overbore all opposition by her serene composure and calm serenity
in the result. Men of war said that she spoke like a soldier and a
strategist; they listened to her in amaze, and wondered what the
great La Hire would say when he should arrive, to find that a
country maiden had been set over his head.

In other matters, too, the Maid knew her mind, and spoke it with
calm decision. The Queen of Sicily had not been content with
order