arrested it. A strong The towns of Champagne were now, however, alarming to the naked eye of reason. chiefly garrisoned by Burgundians, the victories city and a long siege seemed before them, which of the Maid having compelled the Duke of Bed- would give the time required to rally their eneford to withdraw his forces to places which he mies in the rear. A great extent of country still thought in greater danger. For until the expedi- remained to be traversed, and several more towns tion to Rheims was actually undertaken, the Eng- of noted strength-not to mention Rheim itself— lish imagined they should next be attacked in were to be subdued. Gien was the nearest fortParis itself. The French generals had not cal-ress on which they could depend for supplies, and culated on the species of inert resistance planned they were separated from it by Auxerre, of against them. Provisions of every kind had been doubtful neutrality. The want of provisions beremoved as completely as if by some destroying came hourly more urgent and distressing, and visitation, and were fast locked in towns too seemed to threaten the host with a famine, in strong or too remote to be attacked. Rapidity of the heart of an enemy's country. movement was the only strategic they could Still the captains did not venture to express oppose to this warfare of the stomach; and, lured their sentiments until their discouragement reachon by hope and the facility of the way, the hosted the soldiery, and began to show itself in evicontínued its advance until the walls of Troyes dent signs. For awhile animated by the exertions of their beloved prophetess, and perceiving that she shared in all their evils and privations, they worked with the most eager zeal at the preparations which, with John of Lorraine, she indefatigably urged on. But the difficulties of the approaches of Troyes delayed their progress unusually, and the ignorant multitude, now accus tomed to appear and conquer, grew disheartened and impatient at the delay. The sneers and scorns of their no less unscientific captains, in surveying the labors of the Lorraine engineer, fed, and perhaps created their dissatisfaction. Alarming rumors of an English army collecting on their rear, disquieted men's minds. Marshal de Raix pretended to have positive information on this point. Meanwhile the progress of hunger and want could not be disputed; it was visible in the pale faces, and felt in the gnawing hearts of the host. During the six days the siege had as yet lasted, without any appearance of progress, the only food of the soldiery was a scanty harvest of beans, which the garrison of Troyes had not time to gather in. This city was garrisoned by a few English, and more than six hundred soldiers of Burgundy, and was known to be of strength to defy, for a long time, the efforts of a powerful army. But the unhesitating assurances of the Maid that they should win it, dispelled all doubts on that score. Friard Richard, her confessor, had the liveliest hopes on the subject, which he took care to impart, as his means of acquiring them reflected great honor on himself. Troyes was one of the cities which he had visited in the course of his preaching crusade against the English, and where he had been very well received. Nevertheless, the easy conquest anticipated was not met with. The garrison showed a bold front from the first, and sallied lustily from their walls to welcome their foes. The French vanguard had hurried forward with too eager a confidence, and met with so sudden and violent a greeting that they were driven back in confusion, and many prisoners were taken before the Maid received intelligence of the disaster. Among these, owing to his too lively expectation of effecting some brilliant service, exclusively, Friar Richard was unfortunately numbered. The Moreover, Jeanne herself seemed to slacken in zeal and impetuosity. Perhaps she was satisfied with the diligence used by John of Lorraine, and Jeanne was riding placidly along with the saw that it could not be accelerated; or, her king, and other leaders, when tidings of the event fears for the safety of the king induced her, in a arrived in the shape of a throng of bleeding fugi- manner which was very unusual for her, to keep tives. Charles had now an opportunity of ascer-out of the way of danger. He insisted on accomtaining with certainty, by whose agency in reality his affairs were so prosperous. Ere the boldest and readiest captain or knight could propose or attempt any remedy, she had flown like a shaft from the bow to bear it, followed by the masses which always rushed in the wake of her beloved standard. The Burgundians retired when they perceived the strength pouring against them, and Charles, arriving at full gallop and breathlessly to the side of his championess, found her already engaged in summoning a parley with the town. The Burgundians were not yet infected with the panic that pervaded the English soldiery, for they had as yet seen none of the wonders of the Maid. They answered the royal summons with disdain and derision; and the result of a long assault convinced even the resolute Jeanne herself, that it would be necessary to proceed in a more regular manner. panying her wherever she went, declaring he was her pupil in the warlike art. Like the rest of his race, Charles had a personal courage amounting to insensibility; and Jeanne, who dreaded infinitely more for his life than her own, but who dared not confess her reasons, no longer exposed his with hers, in points of peril. Her frequent absences accordingly increased the misgivings and dissatisfaction of the hungry soldiery. The failure even of the coarse esculent on which they had hitherto subsisted finally produced alarming symptoms of mutiny and tumult, and it was agreed among the captains that the time had arrived to urge the necessity of a retreat. Alençon readily undertook the office of spokesman, and attended by all the rest of the generals, proceeded to the king's quarters. They found him in his tent with La Trimouille and his usual retinue, and the Maid, who had now become his almost inseparable companion. The plan of the seige was quickly formed, but The young monarch was half reclining on his was slowly executed; and the first shock of ill-couch, amusing himself and apparently his atsuccess startled the French generals into a recol- tendants by singing a ditty of his own composilection of the great dangers of their enterprise. tion, to the lute. He had a very sweet and tuneNor had events diminished their original ill-will. able voice; but the matter of his lay might The circumstances were, indeed, sufficiently alone have sufficed to delight the heroic girl, who listened to it as if her ears drank in a strain of ther she was of the opinion of the rest. "Speak, paradise, while her flushing cheeks and eyes, Jeanne!" he exclaimed with warmth. "For by glistening with joyful tears, betrayed the work- my life, I will do as thou advisest me, and by no ings of the most passionate feeling. It was a other wisdom will I be governed!" little madrigal in the taste of the times, running something in the following style: "Twas winter all! No leaf on any tree. As seeds beneath the snow, Was all men's loyalty, As birds when tempests blow, Though all the lands of France And winter in my soul; In her frozen fetters bound, I bent to Despair's control, By all abandoned, all betrayed, Till dawned my spring-my Orleans' Maid! 'Twas virgin spring! And every branch shot green, The waste seeds sprung and bloomed 'Till all was flowery sheen. And Love, that seemed entombed, More lovely to be seen, As saints arise from death, Over my desert scene. My thoughts grew bright, I ween! 'Twas sweet spring all around, And sweetest in my soul, And Despair's coil I unwound, Yielding only to Love's control, The royal minstrel was evidently startled by the abrupt entry of his generals, and La Trimouille turned pale as if his hour of doom had arrived, and looked despairingly, even at the Maid. 66 "Do you promise this, my liege, on your dear life, which is the life of France she replied, suppressing with difficulty the emotion which had kept her silent hitherto. "I thought awhile ago that I had lived long enough when that sealike joy inundated my heart, to hear my king speak of gratitude to a peasant girl! But I am needed still! Hear me, captains of France! When the gracious dauphin undertook this jour ney, it was not that he depended on the strength of the armed men he took with him, nor on the treasures wherewith he was furnished to pay his host, nor for that the coronation in Rheims appeared to him or to ye a work of easy accomplishment. But he undertook it on the pledge and word of Jeanne the Maid, who promised that he should go on ever gathering in power, like the snow from the hills, until he entered Rheims, and that he should encounter no effectual resistance on the way! And this shall be, because it is the will of God! Therefore, fair dauphin, if you will remain before your town of Troyes, it shall submit to your obedience within two days, either by force of arms or love; and make no doubt of it!" "It is not for the matter of a day or two, Jeanne; we would tarry many could we be certain to take Troyes at last!" said the archbishop. "But wot you not that the soldiers are starving, and have lost heart, while those of Troyes have bated never a jot of cheer?" "I know it; and would ye take them from their granary yonder, for the walls of Troyes hold all that has been swept of food from our grasp?" replied Jeanne. "You talk, madame! But the soldiery say that since you fare so constantly at the king's table you have lost feeling for their hunger!" said the Marshal de Raix. "I will remove that reproach, messire; for until Troyes is ours, I will taste neither bite nor sup again," replied Jeanne. What, sire! our cold Maid busied herself to be rid of the Lady of Beauty not without a cause! But her new art has spoiled her skill in the old one," said the duke, laughing; but observing the king's frown, he continued: "Nay, my liege, pardon me; I was ever of jesting But who has told you the city shall be ours humor, and as often out of season as in it, though within the space of a mortal fast?" said the archnever more so than now, when I have come in bishop, with a stern and scrutinizing look. "Dost the name of all your peers to tell you we dare thou pretend that the heavenly voices have spoken no longer prosecute this wild-goose chase to to thee and told thee so ?" Rheims ! Here comes the archbishop, your "Nay, reverend father," said Jeanne, with chancellor, with whom we have spoken, and some sadness, but with perfect simpleness of who will tell you that the sufferings of your honesty-" Not once have they counseled me faithful soldiery pass endurance, and can no longer be sported withal." The great ecclesiastic entered as Alençon concluded this harangue, with a cloudy countenance; and to the surprise of Jeanne, for the first time took part against her project. There was a struggling unwillingness in his manner, but resentment at the public rebuke she had administered to him had more share than he himself suspected in the desponding view which he also took of the state of affairs. It soon appeared that the opinion was unanimous on the necessity of a retreat. Even La Trimouille, who longed to be out of the clutches of his enemies, immediately inclined to a view which promised to effect the object most speedily. since we came before Troyes-since the good confessor was captured whom I ought to have preserved from such ill. But John of Lorraine has promised me that his bombards and culverins will be ready to speak the will of Heaven to Troyes, by to-morrow's dawn, in lightning and in thunder!" "Whatever Jeanne says, I swear!" exclaimed the king, and rising with a peremptory air of dismissal, the captains retired, and had scarcely reached the exterior of the tent ere they heard him resume his madrigal with a playful lightness that sounded like mockery. The news of Jeanne's intentions spread rapidly through the camp, and every heart revived with the wine of hope. Dawn found the whole host During all the discussion that ensued, Jeanne under arms, without any summons; and before never once spoke, until the king turned in weari- any of the captains appeared but Jeanne, all were ness and amazement to her, and inquired whe-busied at completing the platforms for the Lor rainer's artillery, as if a single mind and will animated all. The most formidable and extensive preparations were in readiness ere Charles himself came forth, though he made all possible diligence, to the trenches when he heard of the Maid's purpose. "I have chosen my master in war well from among ye! Deem ye not so yourselves?" he said to the captains assembled, who were gazing in wonder at the terrific battery, raised by John of Lorraine, by which the walls of the city were overlooked and commanded. "We must not praise the feast till it is cooked, my liege," said the Duke of Alençon. The game is half cooked that is well trussed!" replied Charles in the same proverbial style. And with reason. Troyes surrendered without a single discharge of this formidable artillery. The hearts of the people were in reality well inclined to return to their natural allegiance, and the captive friar had spread such tidings of the Maid of Orleans as communicated the English panic to the Burgundian soldiery. It was thus that he rewarded them for the hospitality forced upon him so much against his will. His name and character were already known and revered among the populace, most of whom remembered that in a sermon preached by him in the Christmas of the same year, he very judiciously advised them to set beans as they might be wanted for food by some poor people who would come that way in the course of a year. This was the nearest approach he had dared to make to a prophecy in favor of Charles VII. but it was now remembered to his honor as one of undoubted inspiration. The extraordinary aspect of the Lorrainer's battery, the eagerness and enthusiasm that seemed to animate their assailants, infused still deeper consternation. The effect was completed by a singular circumstance. It was a glowing noonday of July when the preparations of assault were matured; and it chanced that an extraordinary quantity of white butterflies were attracted by the glisten of Jeanne's standard, and fluttered round it. The Burgundians on the walls were dismayed with a fancy that those innocent insects were angels appointed to do the Maid's will in disguise, and themselves proposed to the citizens to treat. Accordingly, before a gun was discharged, a signal was made, and the bishop, captains, and burgesses of Troyes came forth; with one accord, to treat of surrender. The terms were easy, for the captains of the French host, were too much rejoiced and in need of success to hazard it by dispute. Jeanne rarely interfered after victory was assured; and as she detested bloodshed whenever it could be avoided, she heard with satisfaction that the Burgundians were to be permitted to evacuate the town, and go whither they pleased. But she had by no means agreed to another of the conditions, too hastily granted by the king's councilors. She learned, by the actual spectacle of Friar Richard shamefully dragged along at the stirrups of the captain of the garrison, that the Burgundians were permitted to march off with their plunder and prisoners. The poor confessor himself, perceiving his heroic penitent, appealed to her protection in the most moving and bewildered terms, protesting that the Burgundians were dragging him away to burn him for a sorcerer, because he had belonged to her. Troubling herself extremely little about the nice observance of the etiquette of war, Jeanne instantly rescued the friar from his uncomfortable captivity. Then declaring aloud that she would suffer no Frenchman who had accompanied her on the expedition, to be led away a prisoner, the soldiery so heartily seconded her, that the Burgundians themselves in terror relinquished their captives. The denial of the French generals that they had any share in the violation of the articles, and the laughing promises of the king that he would pay the ransoms for the rescued, in Paris, was all the satisfaction the garrison of Troyes ever received for their losses. CHAPTER XXIV. RHEIMS. Constance. "O. fair return of banished majesty!" Elinor. O, foul revolt of French inconstancy!" KING JOHN. THE brief resistance of Troyes was the last difficulty encountered on the march to Rheims. Terror or wonder preceded the farther progress of the army, like the pillar of fire before the Israelites in the desert, and subdued the souls of men. The powerful city of Chalons sent its keys long ere its defenders could catch a glimpse of the oriflamme, which, as on a sacred war, was borne with the host of Charles VII. Finally, nothing remained between his victorious legions and the great object of the journey, Rheims, but a short day's march. So far, this city continued in the hands of the English and Burgundians, commanded by captains renowned in war. The Marshal of l'Isle Adam, Hector de Saveuse, and the Lord de Chatillon, held Rheims on behalf of England. But the prodigies that accompanied the approach of Charles, the celestial mission announced and asserted by achievements so marvelous, of her who came with him, exercised an astonishing influence on the inhabitants of that religious city. Rheims itself boasted a kind of mystic and supernatural dignity, confirmed by miracles and extraordinary legends, from a remote antiquity. Symptoms of revolt grew hourly more apparent and menacing to the English captains, and at the same time their soldiery were evidently infected by the panic fear of the Maid of Orleans, now become almost universal among the enemies of France. But when tidings of the submission of Troyes and Chalons arrived,-when a letter signed by the king, the Maid, and the archbishop of Rheims, conceived in the loving and tender tones of a parent adjuring his erring children to return to their duty, was posted up on the gates of the cathedral, (no one knew how but Friar Richard and a wandering brother of his order,) the effervescence became too mighty to be resisted. The Lord de l'Isle Adam and his compeers were obliged to evacuate the city to avoid the explosion which was certain the instant that the appearance of the French host should communicate the necessary spark. Charles had arrived at a castle about a league from Rheims, belonging to the archbishopric, when he received a deputation from the city, inviting him in terms of the most enthusiastic delight, to come and take possession of it. It was determined that the archbishop, Reg-| "Doubt not thy reward. We will turn out nault, as duke and seigneur of the city, should sufficient of the usurping canons from our chapter have the honor of preceding the king and making within an hour to reward thy brethren," said the the most rapid preparations possible for the coro- archbishop. "And for thyself?—It is well known nation. It was Friday; and as the kings of to all men, by our incessant complaints, and to France were usually crowned on Sunday, and no the holy See, by our protest, that the grand priortime could be wasted, it was resolved that the ate of St. Remy has been unlawfully conferred on grand ceremony, which confirmed him sovereign, Gilles de Cauchon, half-brother to our suffragan should be performed within two days. of Beauvais. To-morrow shalt thou to the abbey with those who go to seek the holy vial, for the coronation, with my collation in thine hands, and five hundred spears at thy back, to expel ignominiously the said Gilles de Cauchon, and seat thyself in his place. Will that content thee? And the last recompense I demand is but that the voice of Michael may warn our Maid, on the vigil of the coronation, that her mission is accomplished; that it is fit she retire from camps and courts with the rewards she has merited, to edify France with the spectacle of a saint so glorious in an age so degenerate, leading the life of the purest of antiquity, without suffering martyrdom like them." Regnault de Chartres had enjoyed his dignity titularly for many years, but this was his first visit, as archbishop, to the metropolis of the French church. He was received with every mark of respect and welcome by the citizens, and conducted, amidst the joyful acclamations of the people, to the archiepiscopal palace. It seemed to him like a dream, when, after the glad tumult of his reception had subsided, he found himself enjoying a few instants of breathing time, in a magnificent chamber of his predecessors' ancient residence. The sight of Friar Richard, who alone remained with him, by command, satisfied the prelate that he was awake, by recalling the means that had effected these marvels. "Laudamus Deum! we have accomplished the work with the sword of Gideon !" said the cordelier, with gasping delight. "The priorate of St. Remy !-it is but another step to the mitred abbacy of the same!" said the cordelier, with the liveliest satisfaction.. "My lord, she shall be spinning at home in her village, "And Sampson's weapon, too, Richard!" said or minding sheep under the green forest shadows, the archbishop, slightly indicating the friar's jaw, as she is always sighing to do, within a week! I but adding with gravity, and even gloom, "This will tell her and in faith I believe it—that if wonderful woman has accomplished it all, and we she stays, she will as certainly be broiled by have been but heaven's instruments in directing the English as the Flemings stew crabs for a her supernatural impulses! And now the grati-meal." tude we must show her-that which methinks is At the very same time, in which this plan of suggested to me by the same inspiration-is to remove her forever from the dangers that more certainly environ her success than her toils." "It is most true, my lord; the English will most certainly burn her for a witch if they catch her!" exclaimed the friar. "They were going to burn me,-me, a brother of the thrice-blessed St. Francis, as a sorceress's familiar, if she had not interfered in time. It is like enough that some ill chance will befall her; for these men of the sword are even mad with jealousy that the church and the saints and a woman should have all the glory of preserving France." 66 "Other and worse dangers threaten her, poor girl, and the honor of the church through hers!" said the archbishop, with emotion. I can no longer conceal from myself that our falcon royal has fixed an eye of carnal liking on this wild bird of the woods. He is young, and of seductive beauty and tenderness. It is not in woman-not even in this woman-to resist these qualities, in a king! Moreover, it is plain, Richard, to all but herself, that she loves him. A perpetual shame and doubt on the faithfulest miracles of the church would it bring, if this, the last and brightest, should burn into so foul a socket. This scandal it behooves us by all means to prevent. We must set thine ingenuity once more to work." dismissing Jeanne was matured between the Archbishop of Rheims and his satellite, La Trimouille was exhausting his skill in a secret consultation with the king, to point out the advantages of retaining her. The timorous and shifting minister was now completely dazzled by the splendor of Jeanne's successes, and had fallen in consequence on a new train of projects with regard to her. He took the opportunity of a fresh piece of good fortune, which she had doubtless brought the king, in the proffered allegiance sent by the powerful Duke of Lorraine and Bar, to lay open his ideas. In extreme delight at the news of the duke's intention of attending at his coronation, Charles had inquired of his minister, what sufficient reward they could possibly devise for the heroic cause of their good fortune. "There is only one reward, my royal lord, which she will deem such!" replied the crafty minister. "Yet the granting of it will in no wise impoverish us, but rather will give us a perpetual security and sway over these turbulent soldiers. Yea, 'tis a gift whereof your greatness has often been lavish with much less reasonyour love!" The young king himself blushed deeply; but he answered with a smile of evident pleasure and flattered vanity. "Deem you so, count? for "My lord, I must needs confess that I am we intend the fief of Boulogne to be yours, so heartily tired and affrighted of my task," replied completely that we may well anticipate our the cordelier, peevishly. "Your grace promised chancellor's seal by a few hours! Nay, but of that in Rheims I should be released from a labor late-when we have ventured to offer warmer beyond mine ability; for I am as the magician's caresses which gratitude might justify-she shuns scholar who set in motion a machine so vast that us! Mark you not how ever since we embraced himself was the most terrified of all that witnessed her in Troyes, the freedom and delight of her its powers in activity. I was promised a little manner are gone; and she is rarely with us save rest in Rheims and handsome rewards for myself when the other captains come to weary us with and the brethren who have so assiduously and their iron talk?" secretly labored with me in the cause." "Your salute was something too passionate before so many gazers, and perchance startled her into suspicion of what it is, that I am assured, works of late in her maiden bosom, like a smothered fire the householder himself wots not of," replied La Trimouille. "Her bashfulness is but the more certain sign of your triumph." "It were glorious, indeed, to be loved by so noble a heart!" said Charles, with a sigh. "But what will the Lady of Beauty think of it; and may not Jeanne herself rather deem it dishonor than happiness to be loved by the husband of Marie d'Anjou ??? "Dishonor! the love of a king dishonor a peasant!" replied the Count of Boulogne, with an incredulous laugh. “And trust me, sire, Jeanne, like any other woman, will see in you, not the husband of the queen, but the man she loves! Nay, I am in much doubt whether she did not knowingly rid herself of a rival in Agnes -for who can tell how deep clear waters are, by their seeming? And what fitter oblation to the wounded pride of the Lady of Beauty can your grace offer, than the spectacle of the severe humiliator herself bending to the same shrine of love and pleasure-becoming what she shamed and scorned so cruelly in another ?" grooms wild and mysterious excursions from the camp by night. Melancholy and musing became the dominant moods of that once cloudless and glory-bathing spirit. Her reveries were no longer the magnificent dreams of an inspired though silent poesy. The fiend of passion had entered the Eden of her imagination, and the subtle whisperings of the tempter-the glide of his beautiful serpent gleam among the gorgeous flowers of love and famemarred all the perfume and sweetness of that visionary world. Every hour of the approach to Rheims seemed to add a new violence and whirl to the tempest in her heart, and there was such a mingling of joy and despair in the gaze she fixed on the first rise of its towers on the plain, that none could tell whether she beheld in it an ark of redemption, or a rock of ruin. The archbishop meanwhile displayed the most extraordinary and untiring energy in completing the preparations intrusted to him. There was something miraculous in the very rapidity with which the coronation ceremonial was arranged, usually the toil and anxiety of months, to prac ticed officials. But the whole people of Rheims assisted with as much zeal as if they had been created for no other purpose than to prepare the coronation of Charles VII. A marvelous influx of strangers astonished the citizens, who could scarcely imagine by what magic, in so brief a period, the news of their surrender and intentions became circulated in the neighboring countries. The instinct of all classes had apparently foreseen the events, for representatives of all seemed only to have awaited the opening of the gates to flood Rheims like an inundation. With this glimpse of the means he purposed to employ, La Trimouille proceeded to expound the policy he based on them. The most ardent believer of the populace could not entertain a more enthusiastic confidence in Jeanne's powers than now possessed the favorite minister. He imagined that nothing could resist her, and had formed the notion that by her means he could free himself and the king from the dangers and thraldom which beset them in the hands of the great nobles. He believed, that she had only to One certain sign of the times appeared in the advance with them on Paris, to obtain the same arrival of the Duke of Lorraine and Bar, attendsuccess as hitherto-to roll the whole forces of ed by a little army, to proffer his aid and allegiFrance irresistibly on the enemy, and finally ex-ance to Charles. This great peer had hitherto pel the English from France. There would then kept cautiously aloof from the quarrel that deno longer be a necessity of an assembled host, vastated France, and his adhesion to the cause of commanded by disaffected men; no dread nor the house of Valois was a portent of infinite signeed of the Constable; and in the delightful capi-nificance. tal of France, they might rule in tranquillity over all its territories. The only thing necessary was to secure Jeanne d'Arc devotedly to their will, and that might certainly be effected by the influence of a kingly lover. In special compliment to the prince, the citizens of Rheims entreated him to head their procession when, on the day of the coronation, they went forth to welcome their victorious sovereign. Nearly the entire population of the city followed True it was that a singular change had of late in the train of the burgesses and the soldiers of come over the conduct of Jeanne d'Arc. She the Duke of Lorraine, the former in festal array. seemed to grow more shadowy and sad in the But great as was the interest naturally excited increasing blaze of her favor than in the darkest by the prospect of beholding for the first time hour of the dissatisfaction she had formerly pro- their handsome and popular-mannered king, it voked at court. The caresses with which the was only secondary in the desires of the mulyoung monarch overwhelmed her, apparently titude. To see a woman whom their imaginaembarrassed and distressed her. She avoided his tions exalted into a celestial being, still radiant presence as much as possible, alleging that the with the splendors of her native heaven, was the soldiers labored without zeal when she was ab-all-absorbing object of curiosity and expectasent from their sight, or did not set them the example of energy and perseverance. She resumed Both wishes might, however, be gratified togeher old habit of sleeping in her armor under the ther. Charles and his young redemptress apskies in the fields, surrounded by monks and the proached the city riding abreast, both in complete devoted cannoneers of John of Lorraine. She armor save their helmets, and both answering hurried on the march with a restless eagerness, the most brilliant fancies of the gazers. The deand seemed tranquil only when it was advancing scendant of their kings appeared to them all with rapidity. In the hours of pause or repose, they had anticipated, for joy and triumph and some fever that flamed in her blood seemed to love united to embellish his handsome and winexercise its most devouring sway. It was ob-ning features, and the grandeur of the event served that she slept less now than ever, when roused him from his habitual nonchalance to disthere was no longer much occasion for vigilance; play an equal majesty of kingliness. And there and her sweat-bathed chargers attested to her was in the countenance and demeanor of Jeanne tion. |