"She, with her gaze fixed still a little upwards, answered, 'Before
mid-Lent next year shall succour reach him; then will the city of
Orleans be in sore straight; but help shall come, and the English
shall fly before the sword of the Lord. Afterwards shall the
Dauphin receive consecration at Rheims, and the crown of France
shall be set upon his head, in token that he is the anointed of the
Lord.'

"'And who has told you all this, my child?' asked De Baudricourt
then, answering gently, as one speaks within a church.

"'Mes voix,' she answered, speaking as one who dreams, and in
dreaming listens.

"'What voices?' asked De Baudricourt, 'and have you naught but
voices to instruct you in such great matters?'

"'Yes, Sire,' she answered softly, 'I have seen the great Archangel
Michael, his sword drawn in his hand; and I know that he has drawn
it for the deliverance of France, and that though he has chosen so
humble an instrument as myself, yet that to him and to the Lord of
Heaven will he the victory and the glory.'

"When she had thus spoken there was a great silence in the hall, in
which might have been heard the fall of a pin, and I vow that
whether it were trick of summer sunshine or no, the light about the
maiden seemed to grow brighter and brighter. Her face was just
slightly uplifted as one who listens, and upon her lips there was a
smile.