Yet you know how the day did end. The Maid came--victory rode
beside her! Nought we could do availed when she appeared. I had
thought to be left to die upon the battlefield, but behold I am
here, and she has dressed my wounds with her own hands! It is
wonderful! Past belief! Tell me who and what is she? A creature of
earth or of heaven?"
I had already told him all I knew; but they were never tired of
hearing the story of the Maid; and as I, at her request, watched
beside them during the night, ministering to their wants, and doing
what I was able to relieve their pain, I found that nothing so
helped them to forget the smart of their wounds as the narration of
all the wonderful words and deeds of this Heavenly Deliverer of
France.
They were frank enough on their side also, and told me much of the
disposition of their forces, and how that they were expecting a
strong army to join them quickly, headed by Sir John Fastolffe, a
notable knight, whose name we well knew, and had trembled before
ere this. They admitted that their ranks were somewhat thinned by
disease and death, and that they had scarce sufficient force both
to maintain all the bastilles erected on the north side of the
river and also to hold the great forts of Les Tourelles and Les
Augustins on the south; but that when the reinforcements should
arrive all would be well, and but for the marvellous power of the
Maid, they would have felt no doubt whatever as to the speedy
reduction of the city either by assault or blockade.
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