“Yes, here we were, waiting—­waiting for the word; our horses fidgeting and snorting and dancing to get away, we lying back on the bridles till our bodies fairly slanted to the rear; the word rang out at last—­’Go!’ and we went!

“Went?  There was nothing like it ever seen!  Where we swept by squads of scampering English, the mere wind of our passage laid them flat in piles and rows!  Then we plunged into the ruck of Fastolfe’s frantic battle-corps and tore through it like a hurricane, leaving a causeway of the dead stretching far behind; no tarrying, no slacking rein, but on! on! on! far yonder in the distance lay our prey—­Talbot and his host looming vast and dark like a storm-cloud brooding on the sea!  Down we swooped upon them, glooming all the air with a quivering pall of dead leaves flung up by the whirlwind of our flight.  In another moment we should have struck them as world strikes world when disorbited constellations crash into the Milky way, but by misfortune and the inscrutable dispensation of God I was recognized!  Talbot turned white, and shouting, ’Save yourselves, it is the Standard-Bearer of Joan of Arc!’ drove his spurs home till they met in the middle of his horse’s entrails, and fled the field with his billowing multitudes at his back!  I could have cursed myself for not putting on a disguise.  I saw reproach in the eyes of her Excellency, and was bitterly ashamed.  I had caused what seemed an irreparable disaster.  Another might have gone aside to grieve, as not seeing any way to mend it; but I thank God I am not of those.  Great occasions only summon as with a trumpet-call the slumbering reserves of my intellect.  I saw my opportunity in an instant—­in the next I was away!  Through the woods I vanished—­fst!—­like an extinguished light!  Away around through the curtaining forest I sped, as if on wings, none knowing what was become of me, none suspecting my design.  Minute after minute passed, on and on I flew; on, and still on; and at last with a great cheer I flung my Banner to the breeze and burst out in front of Talbot!  Oh, it was a mighty thought!  That weltering chaos of distracted men whirled and surged backward like a tidal wave which has struck a continent, and the day was ours!  Poor helpless creatures, they were in a trap; they were surrounded; they could not escape to the rear, for there was our army; they could not escape to the front, for there was I. Their hearts shriveled in their bodies, their hands fell listless at their sides.  They stood still, and at our leisure we slaughtered them to a man; all except Talbot and Fastolfe, whom I saved and brought away, one under each arm.”