y the shadow of God, it is an amazing thing!" Then he mashed all the
bones of my hand in his grateful grip, and added, with a proud shake of
his mane, "Now, what have these painted infidels to say!"

Meantime the young person in the plain clothes was saying to Joan:

"Ah, you mistake, my child, I am not the King. There he is," and he
pointed to the throne.

The knight's face clouded, and he muttered in grief and indignation:

"Ah, it is a shame to use her so. But for this lie she had gone through
safe. I will go and proclaim to all the house what--"

"Stay where you are!" whispered I and the Sieur Bertrand in a breath, and
made him stop in his place.

Joan did not stir from her knees, but still lifted her happy face toward
the King, and said:

"No, gracious liege, you are he, and none other."

De Metz's troubles vanished away, and he said:

"Verily, she was not guessing, she knew. Now, how could she know? It is a
miracle. I am content, and will meddle no more, for I perceive that she
is equal to her occasions, having that in her head that cannot profitably
be helped by the vacancy that is in mine."

This interruption of his lost me a remark or two of the other talk;
however, I caught the King's next question:

"But tell me who you are, and what would you?"

"I am called Joan the Maid, and am sent to say that the King of Heaven
wills that you be crowned and consecrated in your good city of Rheims,
and be thereafter Lieutenant of the Lord of Heaven, who is King of
France. And He willeth also that you set me at my appointed work and give
me men-at-arms." After a slight pause she added, her eye lighting at the
sound of her words, "For then will I raise the siege of Orleans and break
the English power!"

The young monarch's amused face sobered a little when this martial speech
fell upon that sick air like a breath blown from embattled camps and
fields of war, and this trifling smile presently faded wholly away and
disappeared. He was grave now, and thoughtful. After a little he waved
his hand lightly, and all the people fell away and left those two by
themselves in a vacant space. The knights and I moved to the opposite
side of the hall and stood there. We saw Joan rise at a sign, then she
and the King talked privately together.

All that host had been consumed with curiosity to see what Joan would do.
Well, they had seen, and now they were full of astonishment to see that
she had really performed that strang