y speak to me; I hear their voices, but others do not.
They are very dear to me--my Voices; that is what I call them to myself."

"Joan, what do they tell you?"

"All manner of things--about France, I mean."

"What things have they been used to tell you?"

She sighed, and said:

"Disasters--only disasters, and misfortunes, and humiliation. There was
naught else to foretell."

"They spoke of them to you beforehand?" "Yes. So that I knew what was
going to happen before it happened. It made me grave--as you saw. It
could not be otherwise. But always there was a word of hope, too. More
than that: France was to be rescued, and made great and free again. But
how and by whom--that was not told. Not until to-day." As she said those
last words a sudden deep glow shone in her eyes, which I was to see there
many times in after-days when the bugles sounded the charge and learn to
call it the battle-light. Her breast heaved, and the color rose in her
face. "But to-day I know. God has chosen the meanest of His creatures for
this work; and by His command, and in His protection, and by His
strength, not mine, I am to lead His armies, and win back France, and set
the crown upon the head of His servant that is Dauphin and shall be
King."

I was amazed, and said:

"You, Joan? You, a child, lead armies?"

"Yes. For one little moment or two the thought crushed me; for it is as
you say--I am only a child; a child and ignorant--ignorant of everything
that pertains to war, and not fitted for the rough life of camps and the
companionship of soldiers. But those weak moments passed; they will not
come again. I am enlisted, I will not turn back, God helping me, till the
English grip is loosed from the throat of France. My Voices have never
told me lies, they have not lied to-day. They say I am to go to Robert de
Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs, and he will give me men-at-arms for
escort and send me to the King. A year from now a blow will be struck
which will be the beginning of the end, and the end will follow swiftly."

"Where will it be struck?"

"My Voices have not said; nor what will happen this present year, before
it is struck. It is appointed me to strike it, that is all I know; and
follow it with others, sharp and swift, undoing in ten weeks England's
long years of costly labor, and setting the crown upon the Dauphin's
head--for such is God's will; my Voices have said it, and shall I doubt
it? No; it will be as they hav