Our journey was not adventurous; nor will I waste time in telling overmuch about it.  We visited the shrine, where the Maid passed a night in fasting and vigil, and laid thereon a little simple offering, such as her humble state permitted.  The next day she was presented to the Duke of Lorraine, as he lay wrapped in costly silken coverlets upon his great bed in one of the most sumptuous apartments of his Castle.

He gazed long and earnestly at the Maid, who stood beside him, flinching neither from his hollow gaze, nor from the more open curiosity or admiration bestowed upon her by the lords and ladies assembled out of desire to see her.  I doubt me if she gave them a thought.  She had come to see the sick Duke, and her thoughts were for him alone.

There was something very strange and beautiful in her aspect as she stood there.  Her face was pale from her vigil and fast; her hair hung round it in a dark waving mass, that lighted up at the edges with gold where the light touched it.  Her simple boy’s dress was splashed and travel stained; but her wonderful serene composure was as marked here as it had been throughout.  No fears or tremors shook her, nor did any sort of consciousness of self or of the strangeness of her position come to mar the gentle dignity of her mien or the calm loveliness of her face.

The Duke raised himself on his elbow the better to look at her.

“Is this true what I have heard of you, that you are the Maid of Lorraine, raised up, according to the word of the wizard Merlin, to save France in the hour of her extremity?”

“I am come to save France from the English,” she answered at once; “to drive them from the city of Orleans, to bring the Dauphin to Rheims, and there see the crown set upon his head.  This I know, for my Lord has said it.  Who I am matters nothing, save only as I accomplish the purpose for which I am sent.”

Her sweet ringing voice sounded like a silver trumpet through the room, and the lords and ladies pressed nearer to hear and see.

“In sooth, the Maid herself—­the Maid who comes to save France!”

Such was the whisper which went round; and I marvelled not; for the look upon that face, the glorious shining in those eyes, was enough to convince the most sceptical that the beatific vision had indeed been vouchsafed to them.

The Duke fell back on his pillows, regarding her attentively.

“If then, Maiden, you can thus read the future, tell me, shall I recover me of this sickness?” he gasped.

“Of that, sire, I have no knowledge,” she answered.  “That lies with God alone; but if you would be His servant, flee from the wrath to come, which your sins have drawn upon you.  Turn to the Lord in penitence.  Do His will.  Be reconciled to your wife; for such is the commandment of God.  Perchance then you will find healing for body and soul.  But seek not that which is hidden.  Do only the will of the Lord, and trust all to Him.”