She had risen, and was looking earnestly at De Baudricourt;
yet all the while she seemed to be, as it were, listening for other
sounds than those of his voice.
When he ceased she was silent for a brief while, and then spoke.
"I would fain it had been to the Dauphin you would send me,
Seigneur; but since that may not be yet, I will gladly go to the
Duke, if I may but turn aside to make my pilgrimage to the shrine
of St Nicholas, where I would say some prayers, and ask help."
"Visit as many shrines as you like, so as you visit the Duke as
well," answered De Baudricourt, who always spoke with a sort of
rough bluffness to the Maid, not unkindly, though it lacked
gentleness. But she never evinced fear of him, and for that he
respected her. She showed plenty of good sense whilst the details
of the journey were being arranged, and was in no wise abashed at
the prospect of appearing at a Court. How should she be, indeed,
who was looking forward with impatience to her appearance at the
Court of an uncrowned King?
Bertrand and I, with some half-dozen men-at-arms, were to form her
escort, and upon the very next day, the sun shining bright, and the
wind blowing fresh from the north over the wet lands, drying them
somewhat after the long rains, we set forth.
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