twenty-five."

"Lord!" Des Hermies interrupted, "promotion came rapidly in those times.
But I suppose warriors then weren't the bemedalled, time-serving
incompetents they are now."

"Oh, don't be misled. The title of Marshal of France didn't mean so
much in Gilles's time as it did afterward in the reign of Francis I, and
nothing like what it has come to mean since Napoleon.

"What was the conduct of Gilles de Rais toward Jeanne d'Arc? We have no
certain knowledge. M. Vallet de Viriville, without proof, accuses him of
treachery. M. l'abbé Bossard, on the contrary, claims--and alleges
plausible reasons for entertaining the opinion--that he was loyal to her
and watched over her devotedly.

"What is certain is that Gilles's soul became saturated with mystical
ideas. His whole history proves it.

"He was constantly in association with this extraordinary maid whose
adventures seemed to attest the possibility of divine intervention in
earthly affairs. He witnessed the miracle of a peasant girl dominating a
court of ruffians and bandits and arousing a cowardly king who was on
the point of flight. He witnessed the incredible episode of a virgin
bringing back to the fold such black rams as La Hire, Xaintrailles,
Beaumanoir, Chabannes, Dunois, and Gaucourt, and washing their old
fleeces whiter than snow. Undoubtedly Gilles also, under her
shepherding, docilely cropped the white grass of the gospel, took
communion the morning of a battle, and revered Jeanne as a saint.