wince
better when I saw what to wince at.

But Joan was at home--in Paradise, I might say. She sat up straight, and
I could see that she was feeling different from me. The awfulest thing
was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles,
the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the
smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up. I wanted to sneeze myself,
but it seemed to me that I would rather go unsneezed, or suffer even a
bitterer torture, if there is one, than attract attention to myself.

I was not of a rank to make suggestions, or I would have suggested that
if we went faster we should get by sooner. It seemed to me that it was an
ill-judged time to be taking a walk. Just as we were drifting in that
suffocating stillness past a great cannon that stood just within a raised
portcullis, with nothing between me and it but the moat, a most uncommon
jackass in there split the world with his bray, and I fell out of the
saddle. Sir Bertrand grabbed me as I went, which was well, for if I had
gone to the ground in my armor I could not have gotten up again by
myself. The English warders on the battlements laughed a coarse laugh,
forgetting that every one must begin, and that there had been a time when
they themselves would have fared no better when shot by a jackass.

The English never uttered a challenge nor fired a shot. It was said
afterward that when their men saw the Maid riding at the front and saw
how lovely she was, their eager courage cooled down in many cases and
vanished in the rest, they feeling certain that the creature was not
mortal, but the very child of Satan, and so the officers were prudent and
did not try to make them fight. It was said also that some of the
officers were affected by the same superstitious fears. Well, in any
case, they never offered to molest us, and we poked by all the grisly
fortresses in peace. During the march I caught up on my devotions, which
were in arrears; so it was not all loss and no profit for me after all.

It was on this march that the histories say Dunois told Joan that the
English were expecting reinforcements under the command of Sir John
Fastolfe, and that she turned upon him and said:

"Bastard, Bastard, in God's name I warn you to let me know of his coming
as soon as you hear of it; for if he passes without my knowledge you
shall lose your head!"

It may be so; I don't deny it; but I didn't her it. If she really sai