第64章 HOW ELLIOT LOST HER JACKANAPES(5)

Next she marched against Beaugency,and,at midnight of June the seventeenth,the English made terms,that they might go forth with their lives,but without baggage or arms,and with but one mark of silver apiece.Next morning came Talbot,the best knight then on ground,and Fastolf,the wariest of captains,with a great army of English.First they made for Jargeau,but they came too late,and then they rode to Meun,and would have assailed the French in the bridge-fort,but,even then,they heard how Beaugency had yielded to La Pucelle,and how the garrison was departed into Normandy,like pilgrims,without swords,and staff in hand.Thus all the Loire and the water-way was in the power of France,wherefore the English marched off through the country called La Beauce,which then lay desert and overgrown with wild wood,by reason of the war.And there,in a place named Coynce,near Patay,the Maid overtook the English,having with her La Hire and Xaintrailles,and she charged them so rudely,that ere the English could array them in order of battle,they were already flying for their lives.There were Talbot and Warwick taken and held to ransom,but Fastolf fled as fast as his horse could carry him.

Thus in one week,between June the eleventh and June the eighteenth,the Maid had delivered three strong towns from the English,and had utterly routed them in fair field.Then,at Orleans,on June the nineteenth,the army went to the churches,thanking God,and the Blessed Virgin,and all the saints,for such great signs and marvels wrought through the Maid only.

Sorrow it is to me to write of such things by report,and not to have seen them done.But,as Talbot said to the Duc d'Alencon,when they took him at Patay,"it is fortune of war."But,as day by day messengers came,their horses red with spurring,to the cross in the market-place of Tours,and as we that gathered round heard of some fresh victory,you may consider whether we rejoiced,feasted,filled the churches with our thanksgivings,and deemed that,in a few weeks,there would be no living Englishman on French soil.And of all that were glad my lady was the happiest,for she had believed in the Maid from the very beginning,when her father mocked.And a hard life she now led him with her sallies,day by day,as more and ever more glad tidings were brought,and we could hear Elliot singing through the house.

Yea,I found her once dancing in the garden all alone,a beautiful sight to look upon,as the sun fell on her and the shadow,she footing it as if to music,but the music was made by her own heart.

Leaning against an apple-tree,I watched her,who waved her hand to me,and still danced on;this was after we had heard the news of Beaugency.As she so swayed and moved,dancing daintily,came a blast of a trumpet and a gay peal from the minster bells.Then forth rushed Elliot,and through the house,and down the street into the market-place,nor did I know where I was,till I found myself beside her,and heard the Maire read a letter to all the folk,telling how the English were routed at Pathay in open field.

Thereon the whole multitude fell a-dancing,and I,for all my malady,was fain to dance with them;but Elliot led me home,her head high,and blue rays darting from her eyes.From that day my life seemed to come back to me,and I was no longer the sick man.

So the weeks went by,in all delight,my master working hard,and Ihelping him in my degree,for new banners would be wanted when the Dauphin went for his sacring to his good town of Reims.As we all deemed,this could no longer be delayed;and thereafter our armies would fall on Paris,and so strong grew I,that I was in hopes to be with them,where,at last,fortune was to be won.But of this my hope I said little to Elliot,waiting till I could wear armour,and exercising myself thereat privately in the garden,before folk had risen in the mornings.