see betwixt man and beast.

Our journey was not adventurous; nor will I waste time in telling
overmuch about it. We visited the shrine, where the Maid passed a
night in fasting and vigil, and laid thereon a little simple
offering, such as her humble state permitted. The next day she was
presented to the Duke of Lorraine, as he lay wrapped in costly
silken coverlets upon his great bed in one of the most sumptuous
apartments of his Castle.

He gazed long and earnestly at the Maid, who stood beside him,
flinching neither from his hollow gaze, nor from the more open
curiosity or admiration bestowed upon her by the lords and ladies
assembled out of desire to see her. I doubt me if she gave them a
thought. She had come to see the sick Duke, and her thoughts were
for him alone.

There was something very strange and beautiful in her aspect as she
stood there. Her face was pale from her vigil and fast; her hair
hung round it in a dark waving mass, that lighted up at the edges
with gold where the light touched it. Her simple boy's dress was
splashed and travel stained; but her wonderful serene composure was
as marked here as it had been throughout. No fears or tremors shook
her, nor did any sort of consciousness of self or of the
strangeness of her position come to mar the gentle dignity of her
mien or the calm loveliness of her face.

The Duke raised himself on his elbow the better to look at her.

"Is this true what I have heard of you, that you are the Maid of
Lorraine, raised up, according to the word of the wizard Merlin, to
save France in the hour of her extremity?"

"I am come to save France from the English," she answered at once;
"to drive them from the city of Orleans, to bring the Dauphin to
Rheims, and there see the crown set upon his head. This I know, for
my Lord has said it. Who I am matters nothing, save only as I
accomplish the purpose for which I am sent."

Her sweet ringing voice sounded like a silver trumpet through the
room, and the lords and ladies pressed nearer to hear and see.

"In sooth, the Maid herself--the Maid who comes to save France!"

Such was the whisper which went round; and I marvelled not; for the
look upon that face, the glorious shining in those eyes, was enough
to convince the most sceptical that the beatific vision had indeed
been vouchsafed to them.

The Duke fell back on his pillows, regarding her attentively.

"If then, Maiden, you can thus read the future, tell me, shall