their Deliverer to ride upon.

And when she was mounted, the people thronged about her weeping and
shouting, blessing and hailing her as their champion and saviour.
The streets were thronged with pale-faced men; women and children
hung from the windows, showering flowers at our feet. Torches lit
up the darkening scene, and shone from the breastplates and
headpieces of the mailed men. But the Maid in her white armour
seemed like a being from another sphere; and the cry of "St.
Michael! St. Michael himself!" resounded on all sides, and one did
not wonder.

Nothing would serve the Maid but to go straight to the Cathedral
first, and offer thanksgiving for her arrival here, and the people
flocked with her, till the great building was filled to overflowing
with her retinue of soldiers and her self-constituted followers.
Some begged of her to address them from the steps at the conclusion
of the brief service, but she shook her head.

"I have no words for them--only I love them all," she answered,
with a little natural quiver of emotion in her voice. "Tell them
so, and that I have come to save them. And then let me go home."

So La Hire stood forth and gave the Maid's message in his trumpet
tones, and the Maid was escorted by the whole of the joyful and
loving crowd to the house of the Treasurer Boucher, where were her
quarters, and where she was received with acclamation and joy. And
thus the Maid entered the beleaguered city of Orleans.

CHAPTER IX. HOW THE MAID ASSUMED COMMAND AT ORLEANS.

The house of the Treasurer was a beautiful building in the Gothic
style, and weary as was the Maid with the toils and excitements
through which she had passed, I saw her eyes kindle with pleasure
and admiration as she was ceremoniously led into the great
banqueting hall, where the tables were spread with abundant good
cheer (despite the reduced condition of the city), to do honour to
her who came as its Deliverer.

There was something solemn and church-like in these surroundings
which appealed at once to the Maid. She had a keen eye for beauty,
whether of nature or in the handiwork of man, and her quick
penetrating glances missed nothing of the stately grandeur of the
house, the ceremonious and courtly welcome of the Treasurer, its
master, or the earnest, wistful gaze of his little daughter
Charlotte, who stood holding fast to her mother's hand in the
background, but feasting her great dark eyes upon the wonderful
shining f