"O my Chevaliere," cried the happy and triumphant monarch, as he
turned to look into her grave serene face. "What a wonderful Maid
you are! Stay always with me, Jeanne, and be my friend and General
to my life's end."
She looked at him long and earnestly as she made answer:
"Alas, Sire, it may not be! For a year--perhaps for a year. But I
shall last no longer than that!"
CHAPTER XVI. HOW THE MAID ACCOMPLISHED HER MISSION.
Shall I ever forget that evening? No, not if I live to be a
hundred!
June had well-nigh passed ere we began our march from Gien--that
triumphant march headed by the King and the Maid--and July had run
half its course since we had been upon the road. For we had had a
great tract of country to traverse, and a large army must needs
have time in which to move itself.
And now upon a glorious golden evening in that month of sunshine
and summertide, we saw before us--shining in a floating mist of
reflected glory--the spires and towers, the walls and gates of the
great city of Rheims--the goal of our journeyings--the promised
land of the Maid's visions and voices!
Was it indeed a city of stone and wood which shone before us in the
level rays of the sinking sun? I asked that question of myself;
methinks that the Maid was asking it in her heart; for when I
turned my eyes upon her, I caught my breath in amaze at her aspect,
and I know now what it is to say that I have looked upon the face
of an angel!
She had dropped her reins, and they hung loose upon her horse's
neck; her hands were clasped together in a strange rapture of
devotion.
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