me a servant of God, and one sent upon a mission of a serious sort
and grave political import. So then the gracious Queen imagined and
contrived that simple and witching costume which I have described to you
so many times, and which I cannot think of even now in my dull age
without being moved just as rhythmical and exquisite music moves one; for
that was music, that dress--that is what it was--music that one saw with
a the eyes and felt in the heart. Yes, she was a poem, she was a dream,
she was a spirit when she was clothed in that.

She kept that raiment always, and wore it several times upon occasions of
state, and it is preserved to this day in the Treasury of Orleans, with
two of her swords, and her banner, and other things now sacred because
they had belonged to her.

At the appointed time the Count of Vendome, a great lord of the court,
came richly clothed, with his train of servants and assistants, to
conduct Joan to the King, and the two knights and I went with her, being
entitled to this privilege by reason of our official positions near her
person.

When we entered the great audience-hall, there it all was just as I have
already painted it. Here were ranks of guards in shining armor and with
polished halberds; two sides of the hall were like flower-gardens for
variety of color and the magnificence of the costumes; light streamed
upon these masses of color from two hundred and fifty flambeaux. There
was a wide free space down the middle of the hall, and at the end of it
was a throne royally canopied, and upon it sat a crowned and sceptered
figure nobly clothed and blazing with jewels.

It is true that Joan had been hindered and put off a good while, but now
that she was admitted to an audience at last, she was received with
honors granted to only the greatest personages. At the entrance door
stood four heralds in a row, in splendid tabards, with long slender
silver trumpets at their mouths, with square silken banners depending
from them embroidered with the arms of France. As Joan and the Count
passed by, these trumpets gave forth in unison one long rich note, and as
we moved down the hall under the pictured and gilded vaulting, this was
repeated at every fifty feet of our progress--six times in all. It made
our good knights proud and happy, and they held themselves erect, and
stiffened their stride, and looked fine and soldierly. They were not
expecting this beautiful and honorable tribute to our little