“I don’t see how you can talk like that, I’m sure I don’t.  I don’t see how you could have got such a notion.  I don’t dislike him, and I’m not saying these things out of prejudice, for I don’t allow myself to have prejudices against people.  I like him, and have always comraded with him from the cradle, but he must allow me to speak my mind about his faults, and I am willing he shall speak his about mine, if I have any.  And, true enough, maybe I have; but I reckon they’ll bear inspection—­I have that idea, anyway.  A manly fellow!  You should have heard him whine and wail and swear, last night, because the saddle hurt him.  Why didn’t the saddle hurt me?  Pooh—­I was as much at home in it as if I had been born there.  And yet it was the first time I was ever on a horse.  All those old soldiers admired my riding; they said they had never seen anything like it.  But him—­why, they had to hold him on, all the time.”

An odor as of breakfast came stealing through the wood; the Paladin unconsciously inflated his nostrils in lustful response, and got up and limped painfully away, saying he must go and look to his horse.

At bottom he was all right and a good-hearted giant, without any harm in him, for it is no harm to bark, if one stops there and does not bite, and it is no harm to be an ass, if one is content to bray and not kick.  If this vast structure of brawn and muscle and vanity and foolishness seemed to have a libelous tongue, what of it?  There was no malice behind it; and besides, the defect was not of his own creation; it was the work of Noel Rainguesson, who had nurtured it, fostered it, built it up and perfected it, for the entertainment he got out of it.  His careless light heart had to have somebody to nag and chaff and make fun of, the Paladin had only needed development in order to meet its requirements, consequently the development was taken in hand and diligently attended to and looked after, gnat-and-bull fashion, for years, to the neglect and damage of far more important concerns.  The result was an unqualified success.  Noel prized the society of the Paladin above everybody else’s; the Paladin preferred anybody’s to Noel’s.  The big fellow was often seen with the little fellow, but it was for the same reason that the bull is often seen with the gnat.

With the first opportunity, I had a talk with Noel.  I welcomed him to our expedition, and said: 

“It was fine and brave of you to volunteer, Noel.”

His eye twinkled, and he answered: 

“Yes, it was rather fine, I think.  Still, the credit doesn’t all belong to me; I had help.”

“Who helped you?”

“The governor.”

“How?”

“Well, I’ll tell you the whole thing.  I came up from Domremy to see the crowds and the general show, for I hadn’t ever had any experience of such things, of course, and this was a great opportunity; but I hadn’t any mind to volunteer.  I overtook the Paladin on the road and let him have my company the rest of the way, although he did not want it and said so; and while we were gawking and blinking in the glare of the governor’s torches they seized us and four more and added us to the escort, and that is really how I came to volunteer.  But, after all, I wasn’t sorry, remembering how dull life would have been in the village without the Paladin.”