n an inch of his throat.
Often have I marvelled how the saints, who, as then, guarded her, gave
her no warning, as they did of the onslaught on St. Loup; but it might
not be, or it was not their will, to which we must humbly submit
ourselves. And now I think I see that wolf's face, under the hood, with
anger and fear in the ominous eyes. In the Church of St. Loup we found
him, and he was a wolf of the holy places. None the less, the words of
the Maid brought more keenly to my mind the thought of Elliot, whom in
these crowded hours, between my sorrow and anger, and fear of the Maid's
wrath, I had to some degree forgotten. They were now ordering an
onslaught on a post of the English beyond the river, and there came into
my heart that verse of the "Book of a Hundred Ballades": how a lover must
press into breach, and mine, and escalade to win advancement and his
lady's favour; and I swore within myself that to-day I would be among the
foremost.

CHAPTER XIII--OF THE FIGHTING AT LES AUGUSTINS AND THE PROPHECY OF THE
MAID

Just above the broken bridge of Orleans there is a broad island, lying
very near the opposite shore, with a narrow, swift passage of water
between bank and island. Some two furlongs higher up the river, and on
the further bank, the English had built a small fort, named St. Jean le
Blanc, to guard the road, and thither they sent men from Les Augustins.
The plan of our captains was to cross by boats on to the island, and
thence by a bridge of planks laid on boats to win over the narrow
channel, and so make an onslaught on St. Jean le Blanc. For this
onslaught the Maid had now been armed by her women, and with all her
company, and many knights, was making ready to cross. But before she, or
we with her, could attain the shore, horses being ill beasts in a boat
ferry, the light-armed townsfolk had crossed over against St. Jean le
Blanc to spy on it, and had found the keep empty, for the English had
drawn back their men to the Bastille of Les Augustins.

Thus there was no more to do, for the captains deemed not that we were of
any avail to attack Les Augustins. They were retreating then to the
bridge of boats, and Messires de Gaucourt, De Villars, and other good
knights were guarding the retreat, all orderly, lest the English might
sally out from Les Augustins, and, taking us in the rear, might slay many
in the confusion of crossing the boat-bridge, when the Maid and La Hire,
by great dint of t