ther might have gone aside to
grieve, as not seeing any way to mend it; but I thank God I am not of
those. Great occasions only summon as with a trumpet-call the slumbering
reserves of my intellect. I saw my opportunity in an instant--in
the next I was away! Through the woods I vanished--fst!--like an
extinguished light! Away around through the curtaining forest I sped,
as if on wings, none knowing what was become of me, none suspecting my
design. Minute after minute passed, on and on I flew; on, and still on;
and at last with a great cheer I flung my Banner to the breeze and burst
out in front of Talbot! Oh, it was a mighty thought! That weltering
chaos of distracted men whirled and surged backward like a tidal wave
which has struck a continent, and the day was ours! Poor helpless
creatures, they were in a trap; they were surrounded; they could not
escape to the rear, for there was our army; they could not escape to the
front, for there was I. Their hearts shriveled in their bodies, their
hands fell listless at their sides. They stood still, and at our leisure
we slaughtered them to a man; all except Talbot and Fastolfe, whom I
saved and brought away, one under each arm."

Well, there is no denying it, the Paladin was in great form that night.
Such style! such noble grace of gesture, such grandeur of attitude,
such energy when he got going! such steady rise, on such sure wing, such
nicely graduated expenditures of voice according to the weight of
the matter, such skilfully calculated approaches to his surprises and
explosions, such belief-compelling sincerity of tone and manner, such a
climaxing peal from his brazen lungs, and such a lightning-vivid picture
of his mailed form and flaunting banner when he burst out before that
despairing army! And oh, the gentle art of the last half of his last
sentence--delivered in the careless and indolent tone of one who has
finished his real story, and only adds a colorless and inconsequential
detail because it has happened to occur to him in a lazy way.

It was a marvel to see those innocent peasants. Why, they went all to
pieces with enthusiasm, and roared out applauses fit to raise the roof
and wake the dead. When they had cooled down at last and there was
silence but for the heaving and panting, old Laxart said, admiringly:

"As it seems to me, you are an army in your single person."

"Yes, that is what he is," said Noel Rainguesson, convincingly. "He is
a terror; and not ju