“How did he feel about it?  Was he satisfied?”

“I think he was glad.”

“Why?”

“Because he said he wasn’t.  He was taken by surprise, you see, and it is not likely that he could tell the truth without preparation.  Not that he would have prepared, if he had had the chance, for I do not think he would.  I am not charging him with that.  In the same space of time that he could prepare to speak the truth, he could also prepare to lie; besides, his judgment would be cool then, and would warn him against fooling with new methods in an emergency.  No, I am sure he was glad, because he said he wasn’t.”

“Do you think he was very glad?”

“Yes, I know he was.  He begged like a slave, and bawled for his mother.  He said his health was delicate, and he didn’t know how to ride a horse, and he knew he couldn’t outlive the first march.  But really he wasn’t looking as delicate as he was feeling.  There was a cask of wine there, a proper lift for four men.  The governor’s temper got afire, and he delivered an oath at him that knocked up the dust where it struck the ground, and told him to shoulder that cask or he would carve him to cutlets and send him home in a basket.  The Paladin did it, and that secured his promotion to a privacy in the escort without any further debate.”

“Yes, you seem to make it quite plain that he was glad to join—­that is, if your premises are right that you start from.  How did he stand the march last night?”

“About as I did.  If he made the more noise, it was the privilege of his bulk.  We stayed in our saddles because we had help.  We are equally lame to-day, and if he likes to sit down, let him; I prefer to stand.”

Chapter 4 Joan Leads Us Through the Enemy

We were called to quarters and subjected to a searching inspection by Joan.  Then she made a short little talk in which she said that even the rude business of war could be conducted better without profanity and other brutalities of speech than with them, and that she should strictly require us to remember and apply this admonition.  She ordered half an hour’s horsemanship drill for the novices then, and appointed one of the veterans to conduct it.  It was a ridiculous exhibition, but we learned something, and Joan was satisfied and complimented us.  She did not take any instruction herself or go through the evolutions and manoeuvres, but merely sat her horse like a martial little statue and looked on.  That was sufficient for her, you see.  She would not miss or forget a detail of the lesson, she would take it all in with her eye and her mind, and apply it afterward with as much certainty and confidence as if she had already practised it.