She herself stood
unmoved in the awful tumult. She even smiled when Dunois and La
Hire would have drawn her from the hottest of the fighting.
"No, no, my friends, my place is here. Have no fear. I shall not
suffer. I have guardians watching over me that you wot not of."
And so she stood unmoved at the foot of the tower, till the
English, overcome with amaze, gave up the defence, and fled from a
place they believed must surely be bewitched.
And as the last of the sunlight faded from the sky, the fortress of
St. Loup was ours. The Maid had fought her first battle, and had
triumphed.
CHAPTER XI. HOW THE MAID BORE TRIUMPH AND TROUBLE.
The people of Orleans, and we her knights and followers, were
well-nigh wild with joy. I do not think I had ever doubted how she
would bear herself in battle; and yet my heart had sometimes
trembled at the thought of it. For, after all, speaking humanly,
she was but a girl, a gentle maid, loving and tender-hearted, to
whom the sight of suffering was always a sorrow and a pain.
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