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 have said, for they say only that which is
true."

These were tremendous sayings. They were impossibilities to my reason,
but to my heart they rang true; and so, while my reason doubted, my
heart believed--believed, and held fast to the belief from that day.
Presently I said:

"Joan, I believe the things which you have said, and now I am glad that
I am to march with you to the great wars--that is, if it is with you I am
to march when I go."

She looked surprised, and said:

"It is true that you will be with me when I go to the wars, but how did
you know?"

"I shall march with you, and so also will Jean and Pierre, but not
Jacques."

"All true--it is so ordered, as was revealed to me lately, but I did not
know until to-day that the marching would be with me, or that I should
march at all. How did you know these things?"

I told her when it was that she had said them. But she did not remember
about it. So then I knew that she had been asleep, or in a trance or an
ecstasy of some kind, at that time. She bade me keep these and the other
revelations to myself for the present, and I said I would, and kept the
faith I promised.

None who met Joan that day failed to notice the change that had come
over her. She moved and spoke with energy and decision; there was
a strange n