第19章 OF THE FRAY ON THE DRAWBRIDGE AT CHINON CASTLE(3)

This gave me some hope;but when I would have tried to ask her a question,she only gazed at me in a manner that abashed me,and turned off to toy with her jackanapes.Whereby I went to my bed perplexed,and with a heavy heart,as one that was not yet conversant with the ways of women--nay,nor ever,in my secular life,have I understood what they would be at.Happier had it been for my temporal life if I had been wiser in woman's ways.But commonly,when we have learned a lesson,the lore comes too late.

Next day my master had business at the castle with a certain lord,and took me thither to help in carrying his wares.This castle was a place that I loved well,it is so old,having first been builded when the Romans were lords of the land;and is so great and strong that our bishop's castle of St.Andrews seems but a cottage compared to it.From the hill-top there is a wide prospect over the tower and the valley of the Vienne,which I liked to gaze upon.My master,then,went in by the drawbridge,high above the moat,which is so deep that,I trow,no foeman could fill it up and cross it to assail the walls.My master,in limping up the hill,had wearied himself,but soon passed into the castle through the gateway of the bell-tower,as they call it,while I waited for him on the further end of the bridge,idly dropping morsels of bread to the swans that swam in the moat below.

On the drawbridge,standing sentinel,was a French man-at-arms,a young man of my own age,armed with a long fauchard,which we call a bill or halberd,a weapon not unlike the Lochaber axes of the Highlandmen.Other soldiers,French,Scottish,Spaniards,Germans,a mixed company,were idling and dicing just within the gate.

I was throwing my last piece of crust to a swan,my mind empty of thought,when I started out of my dream,hearing that rare woman's voice which once I had heard before.Then turning quickly,I saw,walking between two gentlemen,even those who had ridden with her from Vaucouleurs,one whom no man could deem to be other than that much-talked-of Maid of Lorraine.She was clad very simply,like the varlet of some lord of no great estate,in a black cap with a little silver brooch,a grey doublet,and black and grey hose,trussed up with many points;a sword of small price hung by her side.{10}In stature she was something above the common height of women,her face brown with sun and wind,her eyes great,grey,and beautiful,beneath black brows,her lips red and smiling.In figure she seemed strong and shapely,but so slim--she being but seventeen years of age--that,were it not for her sweet girl's voice,and for the beauty of her grey eyes,she might well have passed for a page,her black hair being cut "en ronde,"as was and is the fashion among men-at-arms.Thus much have I written concerning her bodily aspect,because many have asked me what manner of woman was the blessed Maid,and whether she was beautiful.I gazed at her like one moon-struck,then,remembering my courtesy,I doffed my cap,and louted low;and she bowed,smiling graciously like a great lady,but with such an air as if her mind was far away.

She passed,with her two gentlemen,but the French sentinel barred the way,holding his fauchard thwartwise.

"On what business come you,and by what right?"he cried,in a rude voice.

"By the Dauphin's gracious command,to see the Dauphin,"said one of the gentlemen right courteously."Here is his own letter,and you may know the seal,bidding La Pucelle to come before him at this hour."The fellow looked at the seal,and could not but acknowledge the arms of France thereon.He dropped his fauchard over his shoulder,and stood aside,staring impudently at the Maiden,and muttering foul words.

"So this is the renowned Pucelle,"he cried;"by God's name"...

and here he spoke words such as I may not set down in writing,blaspheming God and the Maid.

She turned and looked at him,but as if she saw him not;and then,a light of joy and love transfiguring her face,she knelt down on the drawbridge,folding her hands,her face bowed,and so abode while one might count twenty,we that beheld her being amazed.Then she rose and bent as if in salutation to one we saw not;next,addressing herself to the sentinel,she said,very gently -"Sir,how canst thou take in vain the name of God,thou that art in this very hour to die?"So speaking,she with her gentlemen went within the gate,while the soldier stood gazing after her like a man turned to stone.

The Maid passed from our sight,and then the sentinel,coming to himself,turned in great wrath on me,who stood hard by.

"What make you gaping here,you lousy wine-sack of Scotland?"he cried;and at the word,my prayer which I had made to St.Andrew in my bonds came into my mind,namely,that I should not endure to hear my country defamed.

I stopped not to think of words,wherein I never had a ready wit,but his were still in his mouth when I had leaped within his guard,so that he might not swing out his long halberd.

"Blasphemer and liar!"I cried,gripping his neck with my left hand,while with two up-cuts of my right I sent his lies down his throat in company,as I deem,with certain of his teeth.

He dropped his halberd against the wooden fence of the bridge,and felt for his dagger.I caught at his right hand with mine;cries were in my ears--St.Denis for France!St.Andrew for Scotland!--as the other men on guard came running forth to see the sport.

We gripped and swayed for a moment,then the staff of his fauchard coming between his legs,he tripped and fell,I above him;our weight soused against the low pales of the bridge side,that were crazy and old;there was a crash,and I felt myself in mid-air,failing to the moat far below us.Down and down I whirled,and then the deep water closed over me.