The Mass over, the procession filed back through the gate, both
armies kneeling motionless till it had disappeared. Then the Maid
rose, and we with her, and followed her in its wake, and the French
army, in perfect order, re-entered the city by the appointed gates,
as had been ordered.
One hour later and the Maid sent D'Aulon up to the battlements to
look what the English army was doing. He returned to say that they
were still drawn up in rank as before.
"Which way are their faces?" she asked.
"Their faces are turned away from the city," was the reply.
The countenance of the Maid brightened with a great light.
"Then let them go, a part de Dieu!" she answered. "My God, I thank
Thee for this great grace!"
And so, without further battle or bloodshed, the English army
marched away from Orleans; and upon the next morning not a man of
the foe was left; and the citizens pouring out from the town,
destroyed, with acclamations of joy, those great bastilles, which
had so long sheltered the foe and threatened the safety of the
city.
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