day, to take home with him
when he goes. But as for those other words of yours--what did you
mean by them? How can you witness the joy of a distant village,
when you will be leading forward the armies of France to fresh
victories?"

He gazed searchingly into her face as he spoke; and she looked back
at him with a sudden shrinking in her beautiful eyes.

"Sire," she faltered--and anything like uncertainty in that voice
was something new to us--"of what victories do you speak? I have
done my part. I have accomplished that which my Lord has set me to
do. My task ends here. My mission has been fulfilled. I have no
command from Him to go forward. I pray you let me return home to my
mother and my friends."

"Nay, Jeanne, your friends are here," spoke the King gravely, "and
your country is your mother. Would you neglect to hear her cry to
you in the hour of her need? Her voice it was that called you forth
from your obscurity; she calls you yet. Will you cease to hear and
to obey?"

The trouble and perplexity deepened in the eyes of the Maid.

"My voices have not bidden me to go forward," she faltered.

"Have they bidden you to go back--to do no more for France?"

"No," she answered, throwing back her head, her eyes kindling once
again with ardour; "they have not bidden me return, or I would have
done it without wavering. They tell me nothing, save to be of a
good heart and courage. They promise to be with me--my saints, whom
I love. But they give me no commands. I see not the path before me,
as I have seen it hitherto. That is why I say, let me go home. My
work is done; I have no mission more. Shall I take upon me that
which my Lord puts not upon me--whether it be honour or toil or
pain?"

"Yes, Jeanne, you shall take that upon you which your country calls
upon you to take, which your King puts upon you, which even your
saints demand of you, though perchance with no such insistence as
before, since that is no longer needed. Can you think that the mind
of the Lord has changed towards me and towards France? Yet you must
know as well as I and my Generals do, that without you to lead them
against the foe, the soldiers will waver and tremble, and perchance
turn their backs upon our enemies once more. You they will follow
to a man; but will they follow others when they know that you have
deserted them? You tell me to go forward and be of good courage.
How can I do this if you turn back, and take with you the hearts of
m