We march for Jargeau at dawn
tomorrow!"
Never before had we heard the Maid speak with quite such severity
of tone and word. Her glorious eyes flashed with a strange lambent
light. She looked every inch the ruler of men. All heads were bent
before her. None dared speak a word to hinder her in her purpose.
The morrow saw us before Jargeau. Its walls were strong, it was
well supplied with those great guns that belched forth fire and
smoke, and scattered huge stone balls against any attacking force.
But we had brought guns with us--great pieces of ordnance, to set
against the city walls, and the Maid ordered these to be brought
and placed in certain positions, never asking counsel, always
acting on her own initiative, without hesitation and without haste,
calm and serene; with that deep, farseeing gaze of hers turned from
her own position to the city and back again, as though she saw in
some miraculous vision what must be the end of all this toil.
"Mort de Dieu!" cried La Hire, forgetting in his wonder the loyally
kept promise to swear only by his baton, "but the Maid has nothing
to learn in the art of gunnery! Where hath she learnt such skill,
such wisdom! We never had guns to place at Orleans! Where has the
child seen warfare, that she places her artillery with the skill of
a tried general of forces!"
Ah!--where had the Maid learned her skill in any kind of warfare?
Had we not been asking this from the first? This was but another
development of the same miracle.
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