第34章 THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE.JUNE,JULY,(8)

"Yes,"said the King,"according as you speak.""Noble Dauphin,"she exclaimed,"order your people to assault the city of Troyes,to hold no more councils;for,by my God,in three days Iwill introduce you into the town of Troyes,by love or by force,and false Burgundy shall be dismayed.""Jeanne,"said the Chancellor,"if you could do that in six days,we might well wait.""You shall be master of the place,"said the Maid,addressing herself steadily to the King,"not in six days,but to-morrow."And then there occurred once more the now habitual scene.It was no longer the miracle it had been to see her dash forward to her post under the walls with her standard which was the signal for battle,to which the impatient troops responded,confident in her,as she in herself.But for the first time we hear how the young general,learning her trade of war day by day,made her preparations for the siege.She was a gunner born,according to all we hear,and was quick to perceive the advantage of her rude artillery though she had never seen one of these /bouches de feu/till she encountered them at Orleans.The whole army was set to work during the night,knights and men-at-arms alike,to raise--with any kind of handy material,palings faggots,tables,even doors and windows,taken it must be feared from some neighbouring village or faubourg--a mound on which to place the guns.The country as we have said is as flat as the palm of one's hand.They worked all night under cover of the darkness with incredible devotion,while the alarmed townsfolk not knowing what was being done,but no doubt divining something from the unusual commotion,betook themselves to the churches to pray,and began to ponder whether after all it might not be better to join the King whose armies were led by St.Michael himself in the person of his representative,than to risk a siege.Once more the spell of the Maid fell on the defenders of the place.It was witchcraft,it was some vile art.They had no heart to man the battlements,to fight like their brothers at Orleans and Jargeau in face of all the powers of the evil one:the cry of "/Sus!Sus!/"was like the death-knell in their ears.

While the soldiers within the walls were thus trembling and drawing back,the bishop and his clergy took the matter in hand;they sallied forth,a long procession attended by half the city,to parley with the King.It was in the earliest dawn,while yet the peaceful world was scarcely awake;but the town had been in commotion all night,every visionary person in it seeing visions and dreaming dreams,and a panic of superstition and spiritual terror taking the strength out of every arm.Jeanne was already at her post,a glimmering white figure in the faint and visionary twilight of the morning,when the gates of the city swung back before this tremulous procession.The King,however,received the envoys graciously,and readily promised to guarantee all the rights of Troyes,and to permit the garrison to depart in peace,if the town was given up to him.We are not told whether the Maid acquiesced in this arrangement,though it at once secured the fulfilment of her prophecy;but in any case she would seem to have been suspicious of the good faith of the departing garrison.Instead of retiring to her tent she took her place at the gate,watchful,to see the enemy march forth.And her suspicion was not without reason.

The allied troops,English and Burgundian,poured forth from the city gates,crestfallen,unwilling to look the way of the white witch,who might for aught they knew lay them under some dreadful spell,even in the moment of passing.But in the midst of them came a darker band,the French prisoners whom they had previously taken,who were as a sort of funded capital in their hands,each man worth so much money as a ransom,It was for this that Jeanne had prepared herself."/En nom Dieu/,"she cried,"they shall not be carried away."The march was stopped,the alarm given,the King unwillingly aroused once more from his slumbers.Charles must have been disturbed at the most untimely hour by the ambassadors from the town,and it mattered little to his supreme indolence and indifference what might happen to his unfortunate lieges;but he was forced to bestir himself,and even to give something from his impoverished exchequer for the ransom of the prisoners,which must have been more disagreeable still.The feelings of these men who would have been dragged away in captivity under the eyes of their victorious countrymen,but for the vigilance of the Maid,may easily be imagined.