So now, when I stood face to face with the rugged prud’homme, the father of this wonderful Maid, and told him of her desire to speak with him upon the morrow, when the King should have received his crown, I saw that many emotions were struggling together in his breast; for his soul revolted yet, in some measure, at the thought of his girl a leader of men, the head of an army, the friend of kings and courtiers, whilst it was impossible but that some measure of pride and joy should be his at the thought of her achievements, and in the assurance that at last the King, whom loyal little Domremy had ever served and loved, was to receive his crown, and be the anointed sovereign of the land.

“She desires speech with me?  She, whom I have seen riding beside the King?  What have I to do with the friends of royalty?  How can she consort with princes and with peasants?”

“Let her show you that herself, my friend,” I answered.  “We, who have companied with her through these wonderful weeks, know well how that she is no less a loving daughter, a friend of the people, for being the friend of a King and the idol of an army.  Give me some message for her.  She longs for a kind word from you.  Let me only take her word that you will see her and receive her as a father should receive his child, and I trow that it will give her almost the same joy as the knowledge that by her miraculous call she has saved her country and crowned her King.”

I scarce know what answer Jacques d’Arc would have made, for he was a proud, unbending man, and his face was sternly set whilst I pleaded with him.  But there were others from Domremy, entirely filled with admiration of the Maid, and with desire to see her again; and their voices prevailed, so that he gave the answer for which I waited.  He would remain at the inn over the morrow of the great function of the coronation, and would receive his daughter there, and have speech with her.

“Tell her that I will take her home with me, if she will come,” he spoke; “for she herself did say that her work would be accomplished when the crown was placed upon the King’s head.  Let her be true to her word; let her return home, and become a modest maiden again beneath her mother’s care, and all shall be well betwixt us.  But if pride and haughtiness possess her soul, and she prefers the company of courtiers and soldiers to that of her own people, and the life of camps to the life of home, then I wash my hands of her.  Let her go her own way.  She shall no longer be daughter of mine!”

I did not tell those words to the Maid.  My lips refused to speak them.  But I told her that her father would remain in the place till she had leisure to have speech with him; and her eyes kindled with joy at hearing such news, for it seemed to her as though this would be the pledge of his forgiveness, the forgiveness for which she had longed, and for the lack of which none of her triumphs could altogether compensate.