A Heroine of France | Page 7

eyes gazing full into the blaze of the leaping fire of

logs, which always flamed upon the hearth in the great hall, where the
most part of his time was spent. He would go hunting or hawking by
day, or ride hither and thither through the town, looking into matters
there, or sit to listen to the affairs of the citizens or soldiers as they
were brought before him; and at such times his manner would be much
as it had ever been of yore--quick, almost rough, yet not
unkindly--whilst the shrewd justice he always meted out won the
respect of the people, and made him a favourite in the town.
But when the evening fell, and the day's work was done, and after
supper we sat in the hall, with the dogs slumbering around us, talking
of any news which might have come in, either of raids by the roving
Burgundians, or the advance of the English towards Orleans, then these
darker moods would fall upon him; and once when he had sat for
well-nigh an hour without moving, his brow drawn and furrowed, and
his eyes seemingly sunk deeper in his head, Bertrand leaned towards
me and whispered in mine ear:
"He is thinking of the Maid of Domremy!"
De Baudricourt could not have heard the words, yet when he spoke a
brief while later, it almost seemed as though he might have done so.
"Nephew," he said, lifting his head abruptly and gazing across at us,
"tell me again the words of that prophecy of Merlin's, spoken long,
long ago, of which men whisper in these days, and of which you did
speak to me awhile back."
"Marry, good mine uncle, the prophecy runs thus," answered Bertrand,
rising and crossing over towards the great fire before which his
kinsman sat, "'That France should be destroyed by the wiles of a
woman, and saved and redeemed by a maiden.'"
The bushy brows met in a fierce scowl over the burning eyes; his words
came in a great burst of indignation and scorn.
"Ay, truly--he spake truly--the wise man--the wizard! A woman to be
the ruin of the kingdom! Ay, verily, and has it not been so? Who but

that wicked Queen Isabeau is at the bottom of the disgraceful Treaty of
Troyes, wherein France sold herself into the hands of the English? Did
she not repudiate her own son? Did not her hatred burn so fiercely
against him that she was ready to tarnish her own good fame and
declare him illegitimate, rather than that he should succeed his father as
King of France? Did she not give her daughter to the English King in
wedlock, that their child might reign over this fair realm? Truly has the
kingdom been destroyed by the wiles of a woman! But I vow it will
take more than the strength of any maiden to save and redeem it from
the woes beneath which it lies crushed!"
"In sooth it doth seem so," answered Bertrand with grave and earnest
countenance, "but yet with the good God nothing is impossible. Hath
He not said before this that He doth take of the mean and humble to
confound the great of the earth? Did not the three hundred with Gideon
overcome the hosts of the Moabites? Did not the cake of barley bread
overturn the tent and the camp of the foe?"
"Ay, if the good God will arise to work miracles again, such things
might be; but how can we look for Him to do so? What manner of man
is the Dauphin of France that he should look for divine deliverance?
'God helps those who help themselves,' so says the proverb; but what of
those who lie sunk in lethargy or despair, and seek to drown thought or
care in folly and riotous living--heedless of the ruin of the realm?"
"There is another proverb, good mine uncle, that tells how man's
extremity is God's opportunity," quoth Bertrand thoughtfully; "if we
did judge of God's mercy by man's worthiness to receive the same, we
might well sink in despair. But His power and His goodness are not
limited by our infirmities, and therein alone lies our hope."
De Baudricourt uttered a sound between a snort and a grunt. I knew not
what he thought of Bertrand's answer; but that brief dialogue aroused
within me afresh the desire I had before expressed to see the maid,
Jeanne of Domremy; and as the sun upon the morrow shone out bright
and clear, after a week of heavy rain storms, we agreed that no better
opportunity could we hope for to ride across to the little village, and try
whether it were possible to obtain speech with the young girl about

whom such interest had been aroused in some