Indeed, there were those amongst us who would gladly and joyfully
have marched under our great white banner right to the capital of
the kingdom, and driven forth from it the English Regent and all
the soldiers with him, whether Burgundians or those of his own
nation. For Fastolffe was flying along the road which led him
thither, and it would have been a joy to many of us to pursue and
overtake, to rout him and his army, or put them to the sword, and
to march up beneath the walls of Paris itself, and demand its
surrender in the name of the Maid!
Those there were amongst us who even came and petitioned of her to
lead us thither, and strike a death blow, once and for all, against
the power of the alien foe who had ruled our fair realm too long;
but though her eyes brightened as we spoke, and though all that was
martial in her nature responded to the appeal thus made to her--for
by this time she was a soldier through every fibre of her being,
and albeit ever extraordinarily tender towards the wounded, the
suffering, the dying--be they friends or foes--the soldier spirit
within her burned ever higher and higher, and she knew in her clear
head that humanly speaking, we could embark upon such a victorious
march as perchance the world has never seen before--certainly not
beneath such a leader.
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