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 said
it I think she only meant she would take off his official head--degrade
him from his command. It was not like her to threaten a comrade's life.
She did have her doubts of her generals, and was entitled to them, for
she was all for storm and assault, and they were for holding still and
tiring the English out. Since they did not believe in her way and were
experienced old soldiers, it would be natural for them to prefer their
own and try to get around carrying hers out.
But I did hear something that the histories didn't mention and don't
know about. I heard Joan say that now that the garrisons on the other
wide had been weakened to strengthen those on our side, the most
effective point of operations had shifted to the south shore; so she
meant to go over there and storm the forts which held the bridge end,
and that would open up communication with our own dominions and raise
the siege. The generals began to balk, privately, right away, but they
only baffled and delayed her, and that for only four days.
All Orleans met the army at the gate and huzzaed it through the bannered
streets to its various quarters, but nobody had to rock it to sleep; it
slumped down dog-tired, for Dunois had rushed it without mercy, and for
the next twenty-
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