deal of the month of May had been wasted; and yet by the 6th of June
Joan had swept together a new army and was ready to march. She had eight
thousand men. Think of that. Think of gathering together such a body
as that in that little region. And these were veteran soldiers, too. In
fact, most of the men in France were soldiers, when you came to that;
for the wars had lasted generations now. Yes, most Frenchmen were
soldiers; and admirable runners, too, both by practice and inheritance;
they had done next to nothing but run for near a century. But that was
not their fault. They had had no fair and proper leadership--at least
leaders with a fair and proper chance. Away back, King and Court got the
habit of being treacherous to the leaders; then the leaders easily
got the habit of disobeying the King and going their own way, each for
himself and nobody for the lot. Nobody could win victories that way.
Hence, running became the habit of the French troops, and no wonder. Yet
all that those troops needed in order to be good fighters was a leader
who would attend strictly to business--a leader with all authority in his
hands in place of a tenth of it along with nine other generals equipped
with an equal tenth apiece. They had a leader rightly clothed with
authority now, and with a head and heart bent on war of the most
intensely businesslike and earnest sort--and there would be results. No
doubt of that. They had Joan of Arc; and under that leadership their
legs would lose the art and mystery of running.

Yes, Joan was in great spirits. She was here and there and everywhere,
all over the camp, by day and by night, pushing things. And wherever she
came charging down the lines, reviewing the troops, it was good to hear
them break out and cheer. And nobody could help cheering, she was such
a vision of young bloom and beauty and grace, and such an incarnation of
pluck and life and go! she was growing more and more ideally beautiful
every day, as was plain to be seen--and these were days of development;
for she was well past seventeen now--in fact, she was getting close upon
seventeen and a half--indeed, just a little woman, as you may say.

The two young Counts de Laval arrived one day--fine young fellows allied
to the greatest and most illustrious houses of France; and they could
not rest till they had seen Joan of Arc. So the King sent for them and
presented them to her, and you may believe she filled the bill of their
expectat