v u his seeming success; for shortly afterward | been urging it with vehemence. The trumpet Whilst thus engaged, her eyes were continu- The French had lost heart considerably from Suddenly Jeanne's eyes filled with a wild light, and she sprang on her feet, "I see well," she exclaimed, "that Talbot intends to assault the town; therefore we must send it some rescue, and keep those in the Tournelles well employed in their own behalf! Who will do me this service, and return with the citizens of Orleans to the defense of their homes ?" "I will, Jeanne, though loth to leave this merry assault; but I am yet too stiff with my late bruises to be of much use here," said a knight, whom Jeanne instantly recognized as the one she had rescued on the first sortie she made. "It shall be so. I have seen that you are a gallant soldier, Sir Nicole de Giresme !" replied the Maid. "Return to Orleans and man the walls against Talbot; and so he will deem our siege is raised! But might it not be that thou couldst assail the Tournelles from the town?" "The bridge is shattered in two arches, and all the artillery is here with Maître Jean," replied the Knight of St. John. It was some time before the cessation of all the uproar and movement of attack excited Jeanne's ing, with devouring eagerness and attention, the spreading glitter of arms and standards in the westering sun on the opposite shore, announcing that Talbot's troops still advanced from their cantonments. But Jean of Lorraine suddenly made his appearance before her with a countenance full of grief, and sobbing as if he had lost some dear relative, declared that should the retreat be effected with the haste it had been set about, he must perforce abandon his chief darlings and pride, his four great culverins called the Apostles of Mercy. 66 Retreat! what retreat? Ha! who talks of retreating now when they are on the brink of victory?" exclaimed Jeanne. "Let me see him who talks of retreat, and I will slay him with a look! Ho, friends!" she continued, flying rather than galloping into the midst of the confused French masses. "What mean ye? I command ye to stay, or be yielded over to the English, and die of dishonest wounds in the back! Hark, Gladesdale laughs at ye! as all the chivalry of the earth will at ye, false knights and falser Frenchmen, whose hearts fail now more basely than curs before the tusks of the wild boar !" The apparition of Jeanne d'Arc produced an instantaneous and truly magic effect on the multitude. One universal shout of joy proclaimed her safety, which the dispirited soldiery had begun to doubt; and wherever she went the preparations for retreat ceased, the confusion subsided, and men resumed their weapons with eager cries for battle. In this manner she approached the point occupied by the French captains, who marked the marvels she wrought on her way with mingled astonishment and discomfiture. "Tut, valiant men need only their arms and teeth! What say you, Nicole de Giresme; will you be undying in minstrels' songs with me?" said Jeanne. "The English suspect no danger on that side, and so may the more readily find it; for the wolf comes not where the dogs howl! Those broken arches are not broader than the two noble beech-trees are long wherewith Jean has barricaded the bridge. I marked it well, for methought it was strange to see them blossom still in the dust. Our Lady aiding, cross the air with them, and assault our enemies in the back!" "I go-be death or life my speed!" replied the knight, and setting spurs to his horse he flew with the tidings of his mission to a spot where "It is thou, false marshal, hast counseled this Dunois, and some of the other leaders, exhausted coward flight!" exclaimed Jeanne to De Raix, as with toil, were watching the progress of a new she checked her foaming steed. "The valorous assault. bastard forgets not so much that he is of the very "No, by my fay, we had forgotten Orleans!" blood of France, albeit through his mother's said Dunois. "If Talbot stirs, 'tis time we re-shame! La Hire, what avails all thy noble deeds turned; and indeed we but waste it to tarry to-day if the field is lost? Saintrailles, who counts before these stubborn walls! The assault shall the wounds of the vanquished?-But go, if you cease, and we will return with our aching sides will, fair knights,—the people will remain with to Orleans, for, this day, the Maid's prophecies their peasant girl!" cannot come to pass!" Nearly all the captains had for some time been of this opinion, and the Marshal de Raix had "It is well thou art even such, or I might be angry with thy scolding tongue !" said De Raix, furiously smiling. 4 66 "Jeanne, it is in vain to stay longer. The "Yea, and one that will slay thee, daughter, if English have regained all heart-our soldiery are it is not tended; look at the clots on thy scarf spent-and Talbot, they say, attacks the town!" and breastplate!" replied Richard. Unarm, replied Dunois, his generous blood coloring his and let us apply some of this healing unguent cheeks with shame at the reproach. the oil of olives and lard. I charge thee, on my blessing, and as thou wouldst thrive, suffer thy wound to be medicated." "No, for I have seen that Talbot on the contrary awaits an attack from us, or to assail us as we attempt to repass the river, at what advantage, being beaten and woful, your old experience, Saint Sevère, may tell!" said Jeanne, vehemently. Therefore again I tell ye the people shall not stir, but shall remain to re-enter Orleans with me over the bridge of the Tournelles. This is as true as that God lives and reigns in this blue heaven among us! Grant me but one short hour, brave bastard! We have light enough left until we can fire this pile to make darkness blush! I demand but one hour's pause, and one more assault, and victory is ours!" "Let us return to Orleans, and listen no longer to this madwoman, or while we gnaw at the bone, Talbot will suck the marrow!" exclaimed de Raix. By my father's beard, no!" said Dunois, the enthusiasm of glory reviving in his chafed blood. "Moreover, it is certain the soldiers will not obey us, and Talbot believes those boasting culverins, and waits to batter our sides as we pass Loire. It shall be as the maiden has said. One hour's pause-one more assault-and victory!" Those words uttered in a loud shout, were instantly repeated in a thousand hoarse, eager echoes, and implicitly obeyed. "Eat and drink, and rest awhile, my valiant brothers!" said Jeanne, in that clear, rich, ringing voice, that stirred the hearts of the French soldiery, like warlike music. "Watch me as I stand in yonder vineyard, and when I raise my standard, return to the assault, for, without fail, the English shall no longer have force to defend themselves, and shall be crushed in their towers and bulwarks like vipers under the harrow!" "As you will, father, but I shall not die this bout," replied Jeanne, with a grand smile. "Art thou a prophetess, too, in this, daughter," said the friar, with a crafty one, "and canst thou tell how and when it shall please God to take thee?" "Nay, I know not when, nor where, nor in what hour, but it is not now!" replied Jeanne yet some shadow of her terrific destiny passed over her countenance, as she alighted, adding, with a profound sigh, "Unarm me not, good chirurgeon, for at present I watch over the fate of France, and may not heed mine own.' The mediciner was about, in compliance with this request, to remove the ensanguined wrap, ping from the wound upon which it had been thrust at the junctions of the armor, when suddenly sparks seemed to flash around the eyeslahes of the maid, and she vaulted from his hands upon her steed, with a single effort. "Farewell! we have no time now-we must observe the moment of victory is at hand!" she exclaimed. 66 Ho, it is well the English on the Tournelles gaze at us so fondly they note nothing that occurs behind! Good citizens !see how softly they lower the broad beech trees with Jeanne de Lorraine's cranes! Ho, that spans not the arch!-Where may they rest it? Marry, he who made these mighty benches shall be well paid, in Rheims !-Look, they are firmly set !-Now plank it, now plank it, excellent carpenters!It is done! Who crosses first! Nicole de Giresme, valiant knight, is it thou?-Victory, victory!-to the assault again, brothers!-all is yours!" Jeanne then returned to her former elevated Then raising her standard with the appointed position, while the people set to work at refresh- signal, Jeanne d'Arc set her horse to its wildest ing themselves with as much zeal as if some speed, and returned to the field of battle. All religious rite had been enjoined, of efficacy to eyes had watched for it as a summons to life or win them the stoutly defended forts of their ene-death, and with one tremendous shout that shook mies. And it was very fortunate for the French the sky, the whole mass-knights, archers, cithat their leaders complied with her request. tizens, men at arms, women and children, the Talbot, believing the attack on the Tournelles had very maurauders and hangers-on of the camp, failed, made preparations to interrupt the passage rolled to the summits of the English bastion! of the river which, in the confusion of a retreat, It was at this moment that the attention of might well have proved fatal to the whole French Gladesdale and his knights was distracted by the host. He had drawn nearly all his heavy artillery shouts of an assault on the side of the Tourfrom the forts along the shore, and himself with a nelles, where they had imagined themselves inchosen power prepared to float on rafts below the accessible. The English soldiery in the bastille, bridge of Orleans, to prevent the entrance of the exhausted with fatigue, and appalled with the French boats. Gladesdale would undoubtedly extraordinary nature of this renewed attack, besally from his bastilles, and attack his retreating lieving themselves in some inexplicable manner enemies in the rear; so that their destruction, but surrounded, suddenly abandoned all their defenfor the resolution of their woman-leader, was ses, threw down their arms, and fled in the assured. wildest disorder toward the Tournelles. The Jeanne continued to watch with intense anxiety valiant Gladesdale himself was obliged to retire for some signs of the diversion she had ordered to before the overwhelming sea of combatants that be attempted by Nicole de Giresme, when Friar poured in upon him and his captains. They enRichard made his appearance with a surgeon, and deavored vainly to contest the narrow passage insisted that her wound should be dressed. The that opened on the bridge from the bastille, for good confessor was rarely visible during the heat at this moment a cry was raised that the castle of conflicts, but he always turned up in some un-of the Tournelles was on fire, and the fugitives accountable manner as soon as there was a lull or a triumph. "My wound?—I have none, good father!" said Jeanne, with perfect simplicity. came rushing back in such multitudes that they forced those who were retreating again to advance. Nicole de Giresme and his company were indeed engaged in casting every species of burning ma terial they could obtain, with lighted torches, was, methinks, of the honester order of those into the Tournelles, from the side of Orleans. rogues at Commercy, and we have carnage The cross-barred casements began to glare, and enow already! Spare him, and he shall be my its defenders, seized with a panic similar to that messenger to Talbot, to entreat him once more which had taken the holders of the bastille, fled to cease reddening our fields and rivers with the out on the bridge, so that the two parties of fugi- blood of his countrymen." tives met with a shock. "Gladesdale, Gladesdale," cried a voice above all the uproar, "yield, yield, to the King of Heaven! Strumpet thou has called me, and I am none, but a woman that will take great pity on thee and thine !" CHAPTER XVII. ORLEANS. "Advance our waving colors on the walls; "Never, sorceress! St. George and Talbot to our aid!" shouted the unfortunate and valiant knight; and they were the last distinct words he ever uttered, for, as he spoke, the bridge, which was an ancient wooden structure, yielded to the overwhelming and tumultuous pressure upon it. THE ex-verdurer of Commercy thus found A terrific crack and then an uproar as of a falling mercy where he least expected it; but the exworld was heard, all the timbers yielded with a treme terror and confusion he manifested on mighty crash of thunder, and the English sur- recovering his senses astonished and amused the vivors of that sanguinary contest were precipi- French captains, who now assembled round Jetated into the stream, or crushed among the anne to witness the firing of the bastille. He kept massive fragments of the woodwork and mason- crossing himself incessantly during the whole Gladesdale himself, covered with his mas- time she uttered her message to Talbot, as if he ry. sive armor, sunk into the waters like a huge heard some fearful incantation. And yet it was rock, and never once re-appeared above them. a pathetic entreaty to the English captains to hear The yells and cries of seven hundred mangled and drowning Englishmen swelled the massive shout of triumph with which their enemies saluted the appearance of Jeanne d'Arc, as she emerged with her standard on the summit of the conquerred bastille. Nearly at the same moment Nicole de Giresme rent down the standard of St. George from the battlements of the Tour nelles. reason, as she called it, and leave the ravaged bosom of France in peace. The sight of human bloodshed, and death in its horrors, softened to a natural and most touching womanishness the heart of the heroic girl of Domremy. She wept profusely while she uttered the charitable appeal which her simplicity and tenderness of heart conjointly prompted. 66 Ay, let him go in good time, for if Jeanne's The conflagration in that pile was eagerly ex- tears fail, her sword hath arguments more mo7tinguished by the victorious citizens of Orleans, ing," added La Hire. "Tell Talbot from us all who regarded it as one of the chief strengths of that it is his turn now, and that if he do not speedtheir town. But the French captains determined, ily depart, we will come and root him out of his according to their former plan, to burn the bas-rat-hole at St. Laurent.” tille, which was only of service to annoy and Thus variously instructed, Wulfstan was inblockade the citizens. This measure completed formed that he should be allowed to leave Or its evacuation; and among the fugitives who had not left the fortification, and consequently had not shared the fate of Gladesdale and his companions, was Wulfstan of Warbois. leans by the gate nearest to St. Laurent, as soon as the French host had returned to the city. This was accomplished by means of a bridge zealously constructed on the plan of that between the Tournelles and Orleans, by the French soldiery, after the demolition of the bastille, that Jeanne might literally fulfill her prophecy, and reënter the city by its bridge. We cannot, as sincere chroniclers, ascribe this circumstance to any excess of courage on the part of the Verdurer. Brave as a lion against mortal men and mortal weapons, Wulfstan was J more fearful than an old woman or a child of those All the bells in Orleans were ringing in joyful agencies which he now believed to be at work. unison in his ears, when the Verdurer was thrust Blinded by terror, he ran into the very danger out of the gates in front of the fortification of St. he sought to shun, and leaping down the lofty Laurent. No hunted hare ever made half the bulwarks from an embrazure in which, it must speed he displayed in crossing the intermediate be confessed, he had hidden himself, Wulfstan distance, until challenged by the sentinels of Talfound himself in the hands of John of Lorraine bot's camp. and the pikemen who guarded his cannons. The full extent of the calamity was already These soldiers leveled a dozen weapons at him known in the lines of the blockade, and the conat once, and were about to make an end of the sternation among the soldiery was only equaled mortal existence of Wulfstan of Warbois, when by the dissensions and wrath of their commanda commanding voice ordered them to desist. ers. The former lost all courage, and openly murThe Verdurer glanced at his deliverer, and fell mured that they would no longer contend with a senseless on the field, for it was the sorceress hideous sorceress, who had all the powers of hell at ! herself! command. The latter upbraided each other, as "He is badly hurt! Our Lady forgive me having occasioned the ruin by evil advice, or inthat I should weep for pity of these English- ert action. The Earl of Suffolk bitterly reminded men!" said Jeanne, gazing at the bruised visage Talbot, that it was his peremptory counsel that of her quondam admirer. "By my staff! is it persuaded the rest to stay on the northern shore even thou, Fastolfe's man, of Domremy?" she of the river, in expectation of an attack which added, with a start, and a smile mingled with incessantly thundered on the opposite one. the flow of tears that came to her eyes. "He The only point that could not disputed was, แ that the blockade was now, to all useful purposes, | dawn revealed in characters, glaring as the writdestroyed. Not a single English fort or soldier ing on the wall, the dismal state of their affairs. remained on the south of the Loire, to hinder The French had meanwhile watched the procommunication between the city and the friendly ceedings of their enemies from Orleans with incountries of Touraine and Berry. Provisions and terest, even while abandoning themselves to a demen could be furnished at pleasure in those direc- lirium of triumph and joy. Nor had the English tions, and it was hopeless to attempt retrieving captains miscalculated on the national vanity and positions which had been destroyed, with an army rashness of success. The moment it was perthat could not keep them. ceived that the besiegers intended to offer battle, the majority of the captains in Orleans were eager to accept it. The number of the French soldiery, without reckoning the citizens of Orleans, now more than equaled that of their enemies, and they were in the full flush of triumph, while their challengers, despite their menacing attitude, were in the sadness and gloom of defeat. Most of the captains had also another motive. By order of her chirurgeons, Jeanne d'Arc kept her bed in Orleans, until her wound should close. To win a field of battle in her absence would retrieve them a share in the recent glories, which the popular love and enthusiasm ascribed altogether to her. A council was held on these disastrous circumstances, and was in full dispute, when Wulfstan of Warbois arrived in St. Laurent. Talbot, as well as the rest of the English captains, now perceived the great but scarcely avoidable fault they had committed, by remaining in isolated posts, exposed to the attacks of so enterprising an enemy. But Talbot, with his characteristic daring, insisted that the only means left to repair this error, was by resuming the offensive, and attacking Orleans on the side they still possessed, with all their forces. The Earl of Suffolk overruled this plan, almost for the first time since he had assumed the command, with decision and energy. He pointed out the extreme dejection of the Dunois and La Hire, with others of that fatroops, justified by the bloody overthrow of the mous chivalry, were not actuated by such unmost famous leaders and valiant men-at-arms. worthy motives; but the highest mettled blood And reverting to an idea which many a glorious of France was in their veins, and most of them field had made familiar to the English mind, he proposed to concentrate all the host, by abandoning the lines of the blockade, and await the French in order of battle, if they sallied forth to destroy them. The impetuosity, and vain-glorious confidence, which had so often precipitated the French into defeat and ruin, might again urge them to try the fortune of a stricken field with their adversaries. a Talbot was contending against this project, as repetition of the disastrous policy of the day, when Wulfstan of Warbois was admitted, on the assurance that he brought a message from the French. The tidings brought by the Verdurer-the details of the massacre of their friends-the vaunting accompaniments with which La Hire seasoned the mild entreaties of Jeanne d'Arc, construed into insults more bitter-fired the hot blood of Talbot so fiercely, that he lost all consideration but the desire of revenge. "Says she so, God's life! What, if Talbot do not skim the brine like a recreant trout disturbed by a child, this woman will chase him home to England!" he exclaimed. "What raving stuff is this she sends us? If Talbot yield not obedience, he shall meet with her on a field where the beautiful Oriflamme shall wave like a woof of lightning in his eyes! So be it. Out on thee, witch! I spit on thee, and thy threats. Suffolk, I yield my counsel, and am willing that we should abide in battle-array before St. Laurent, to see this wench with her thunder and lightning petticoats, at more leisure !" It was thus unanimously resolved, and the night of this stormy day was occupied in withdrawing the English forces from the long line of the blockade, and concentrating them around St. Laurent. But terror had been busy in all the ranks; the very breath of the summoners wavered in the trumpets; and so numerous were the desertions on that night, that the swords of the French, gory as they were, thinned not the English ranks so much by many a score. The army was affrighted with its own losses, and the most valiant commanders were dismayed, when the muster at had lost honors which they were anxious to regain from the once victorious enemy before them. A manly sentiment might even make them rejoice that the heroic woman who had hitherto foremost dared the dangers of war, should be safe from a still more perilous strife on a pitched field of battle, where according to the practice of the age, strength of arm rather than skill, was necessary. These various motives conduced to make all agree in not revealing their project to the Maid; and none were more astonished than the captains of the French host, drawn up in battle array beneath the walls of Orleans, and preparing for a decisive contest with the besiegers, than to behold Jeanne ride from the gate Regnart and down the lines with her consecrated standard in her hand, and everywhere command the legions to halt. "You shall not go to battle on this day," she said, in a tone that everywhere met with implicit obedience. "It is Sunday: a day when He who made the heavens and the earth rested! But not therefore rest ye from this work, for it is good, and good works may be done on this day. But because our Lord was the son of a woman, too, and full of mercy and compassion, He wills that you shall allow the English to depart in peace, if they will, and fill quiet graves in their own lands. To-day ye shall but use the shield, but if they tarry another sunrise your swords shall be as the scythes of death, and level all this field!" "This foolish woman comes to spoil all;-let us not heed her womanishness, but order a general charge !" exclaimed De Raix. Jeanne approached at this moment near enough to hear the words; and her face which was very pale, flushed scarlet with anger. "Ha, blasphemous fellow! wherefore is it thou dost continually oppose thyself to the orders of our Lady and St. Michael?" she said in a voice audible along the whole line of battle. "Wilt thou measure strengths with me, then? Advance thy standard and mark how many follow it when mine halts here, and halt it shall until this high sun sinks below the level plain and spoke of retreat, and of the impossibility of of Orleans!" The camp "Dost thou dispute the authority of the king's marshals of battle, woman?" returned De Raix. "I am the marshal of the battles of the King of kings, man! let that answer thee," said Jeanne. "This is His war, for He is ever on the side of justice, and it is just that every people should possess the inheritance He has given it! France is ours, and not England's." "It needed no witchcraft to tell us that; yet surely the English belie thee not, else how couldst thou learn tidings of our secret resolve, on thy bed of sickness?" said De Raix, continuing with a malicious and incredulous glance at Friar Richard, who carried his crucifix beside the Maiden as usual. "Unless some meddling eaves-dropper, whom I note ever snuffing in holes and corners like a terrier that scents rats, carried the news?" withstanding supernatural arms! followers silently disappeared: numerous banners vanished from the field like dew in a hot sunshine; and the boldest captains of the English host began to apprehend that this gradual desertion would end in open and shameless flight. Talbot himself-with a rage and anguish to which no power of description could do justice -Talbot himself, grinding his teeth like a lion in the toils, could not but acknowledge it, when, in refutation of this opinion, and without asking any consent from the Earl of Suffolk, he ordered the whole battle to advance and charge the French, in the name of God and St. George! Not a man stirred. On the contrary, a shuddering withdrawal of the whole line was visible, as when a strong wind passes along a corn-field. The result of the mounted council of war which assembled around Talbot after this revelation, "Foolish man! the fiend has only power to was THE RAISING OF THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS. betray the counsels of the wicked!" retorted The English captains, furiously ascribing the Jeanne, unheeding this inuendo. "And learn, whole blame to each other, and resolving to to thy confusion, that it was that glorious voice, separate their forces the moment they arrived at tuned to the music of the heavenly harps, which a safe distance from the enemy, gave order for a first warned me forth on my deeds, that brought departure. Toward noonday-without striking me tidings of your purpose as I lay lonely and a blow-the English host melted away from the sadly in my chamber, commanding that the for- gaze of its enemies like a mighty iceberg drifttunes of France should not be essayed to-day "ing from the view of a ship hesitating on the This revelation, communicated with a pro-waves in sight of its menacing bulk! The flames phetic grandeur of look and manner, struck gen- of the sixty forts with which Orleans was encireral awe. The soldiers repeated it in murmurs cled on the north, belted the vast plain with fire, among themselves; spears sunk; and the bent in the gaze of the last of the English host who bow relaxed as if of its own accord; and De turned to survey it, shaking his spear in the air Raix very clearly perceived that he must ad- with bootless rage. It was Talbot-and yet vance alone, if at all. The agencies, whatever there were tears upon his cheek!-tears such as they might be, that directed the actions of only spirits so mighty and so mightily rebuked Jeanne d'Arc, were evidently not willing that can shed! the glory and merit of her interposition should be snatched from her, or even shared. Or it might have been a fiat of the invisible destiny governing events, and which had determined the redemption of France. The English army finding itself defied and bearded by an enemy so often vanquished, encouraged by the daring of its leader and the absence of the supernatural championess from the ranks of the foe, was fast resuming the spirit that won Agincourt. But when her reappearance was avouched by ocular testimony, when the extraordinary effect of her arrival was observed, which resembled the sudden pause produced by the lull of a wind hurrying on a tempest, the English host was struck with universal dismay. Horrors infinite as imagination seemed in preparation over their devoted heads. A species of ophthalmia assailed the very senses of the soldiery. The host before them multiplied to one of infinite numbers; the air seemed peopled with fiery forms; and, to some affrighted gazes, the walls of Orleans crowded with skeleton defenders armed with darts, which they shook with derisive laughs at the baffled assailants. In truth, the whole faminestruck population of the city poured forth thither, in delirious triumph, to witness the confusion of their enemies. With national variability the entire French people, including the gravest councilors as well as the multitude, abandoned themselves to a delirium of joy and triumph. From the depths of despair, in a moment they sped to the highest flight of hope. The fame of the Maid of Orleans, as she was now universally called, flew over all France, and like a radiant messenger everywhere roused the most enthusiastic belief and daring. In a moment the gloomy prestige of defeat and fear had passed from the hearts of the French to those of their enemies. The English seemed to hide themselves rather than retire to their forEvery moment of this threatening pause in-tresses on the Loire; and their commanders, creased the terrors of the devoted host. The irritated with mutual jealousies and heartburnmost valiant soldiers looked pale; stout yeomen ings, committed the crowning error of dividing and men-at-arms dropped in strange swoons- their forces, and refusing to make any effort in men whom wounds and bloodshed had never sub-common. dued to such weakness. An articulate murmur, These mighty successes silenced envy, and even and yet scarcely audible, pervaded all the ranks, stilled for awhile the watchful suspicions in the |