第49章 OF THE FIGHTING AT LES AUGUSTINS AND THE PROPHECY
Some while I remained with Rutherford,Kennedy,and many others,for what could we avail to help the Maid?and to run has an ill look,and gives great heart to an enemy.Moreover,that saying of the Maid came into my mind,that she should be smitten of a bolt,but not unto death.So I even abode by the fosse,and having found an arbalest,my desire was to win a chance of slaying Brother Thomas,wherefore I kept my eyes on that archere whence he had shot.But no arbalest was pointed thence,and the fight flagged.On both sides men were weary,and they took some meat as they might,no ladders being now set on the wall.
Then I deemed it no harm to slip back to the vineyard where the Maid lay,and there I met the good Father Pasquerel,that was her confessor.He told me that now she was quiet,either praying or asleep,for he had left her as still as a babe in its cradle,her page watching her.The bolt had sped by a rivet of her breast-piece,clean through her breast hard below the shoulder,and it stood a hand-breadth out beyond.Then she had wept and trembled,seeing her own blood;but presently,with such might and courage as was marvel,she had dragged out the bolt with her own hands.Then they had laid on the wound cotton steeped with olive oil,for she would not abide that they should steep the bolt with weapon salve and charm the hurt with a song,as the soldiers desired.Then she had confessed herself to Pasquerel,and so had lain down among the grass and the flowers.But it was Pasquerel's desire to let ferry her across secretly to Orleans.This was an ill hearing for me,yet it was put about in the army that the Maid had but taken a slight scratch,and again would lead us on,a thing which I well deemed to be impossible.So the day waxed late,and few onslaughts were made,and these with no great heart,the English standing on the walls and openly mocking us.
They asked how it went with the Maid,and whether she would not fain be at home among her kine,or in the greasy kitchen?We would cry back,and for my own part I bade them seek the kitchen as pock-puddings and belly-gods,and that I cried in their own tongue,while they,to my great amaze,called me "prentice boy"and "jackanapes."Herein I saw the craft and devilish enmity of Brother Thomas,and well I guessed that he had gotten sight of me;but his face I saw not.
Ill names break no bones,and arrows from under cover wrought slight scathe;so one last charge the Bastard commanded,and led himself,and a sore tussle there was that time on the wall-crest,one or two of our men leaping into the fort,whence they came back no more.
Now it was eight hours of the evening,the sky grey,the men out-worn and out of all heart,and the captains were gathered in council.Of this I conceived the worst hope,for after a counsel men seldom fight.So I watched the fort right sullenly,and the town of Orleans looking black against a red,lowering sky in the west.Some concourse of townsfolk I saw on the bridge,beside the broken arch,and by the Boulevard Belle Croix;but I deemed that they had only come to see the fray as near as might be.Others were busy under the river wall with a great black boat,belike to ferry over the horses from our side.
All seemed ended,and I misdoubted that we would scarce charge again so briskly in the morning,nay,we might well have to guard our own gates.
As I sat thus,pondering by the vineyard ditch,the Maid stood by me suddenly.Her helmet was off,her face deadly white,her eyes like two stars.
"Bring me my horse,"she said,so sternly that I crushed the answer on my lips,and the prayer that she would risk herself no more.
Her horse,that had been cropping the grass near him happily enough,I found,and brought to her,and so,with some ado,she mounted and rode at a foot's pace to the little crowd of captains.
"Maiden,ma mie,"said the Bastard."Glad I am to see you able to mount.We have taken counsel to withdraw for this night.Martin,"he said to his trumpeter,"sound the recall.""I pray you,sir,"she said very humbly,"grant me but a little while";and so saying,she withdrew alone from the throng of men into the vineyard.
What passed therein I know not and no man knows;but in a quarter of an hour's space she came forth,like another woman,her face bright and smiling,her cheeks like the dawn,and so beautiful that we marvelled on her with reverence,as if we had seen an angel.
"The place is ours!"she cried again,and spurred towards the fosse.
Thence her banner had never gone back,for D'Aulon held it there,to be a terror to the English.Even at that moment he had given it to a certain Basque,a very brave man,for he himself was out-worn with its weight.And he had challenged the Basque to do a vaillance,or boastful deed of arms,as yesterday I and the Spaniard had done.So D'Aulon leaped into the fosse,his shield up,defying the English;but the Basque did not follow,for the Maid,seeing her banner in the hands of a man whom she knew not,laid hold of it,crying,"Ha,mon estandart!mon estandart!"There,as they struggled for it,the Basque being minded to follow D'Aulon to the wall foot,the banner wildly waved,and all men saw it,and rallied,and flocked amain to the rescue.