of Meung.

What a harvest of English strongholds we had reaped in those three
days!--strongholds which had defied France with quite cool confidence
and plenty of it until we came.

30 The Red Field of Patay

WHEN THE morning broke at last on that forever memorable 18th of June,
there was no enemy discoverable anywhere, as I have said. But that did
not trouble me. I knew we should find him, and that we should strike
him; strike him the promised blow--the one from which the English power
in France would not rise up in a thousand years, as Joan had said in her
trance.

The enemy had plunged into the wide plains of La Beauce--a roadless
waste covered with bushes, with here and there bodies of forest trees--a
region where an army would be hidden from view in a very little while.
We found the trail in the soft wet earth and followed it. It indicated
an orderly march; no confusion, no panic.

But we had to be cautious. In such a piece of country we could walk into
an ambush without any trouble. Therefore Joan sent bodies of cavalry
ahead under La Hire, Pothon, and other captains, to feel the way.
Some of the other officers began to show uneasiness; this sort of
hide-and-go-seek business troubled them and made their confidence
a little shaky. Joan divined their state of mind and cried out
impetuously:

"Name of God, what would you? We must smite these English, and we will.
They shall not escape us. Though they were hung to the clouds we would
get them!"

By and by we were nearing Patay; it was about a league away. Now at this
time our reconnaissance, feeling its way in the bush, frightened a deer,
and it went bounding away and was out of sight in a moment. Then hardly
a minute later a dull great shout went up in the distance toward Patay.
It was the English soldiery. They had been shut up in a garrison so long
on moldy food that they could not keep their delight to themselves when
this fine fresh meat came springing into their midst. Poor creature, it
had wrought damage to a nation which loved it well. For the French knew
where the English were now, whereas the English had no suspicion of
where the French were.

La Hire halted where he was, and sent back the tidings. Joan was radiant
with joy. The Duke d'Alencon said to her:

"Very well, we have found them; shall we fight them?"

"Have you good spurs, prince?"

"Why? Will they make us run away?"

"Nenni, en nom de Dieu! These English are ours--they are lo