at Blois from Poitiers, accompanied by the Archbishop of Rheims,
Regnault de Chartres. On the 27th of April she left Blois on her first
warlike expedition.

No certain account of the numbers of troops which accompanied the Maid
has been kept. Monstrelet gives the numbers at seven thousand; but
Joan, during her trial, asserted that she had between ten and twelve
thousand men committed to her charge by the King. Joan's historian, M.
Wallon, points out that this may be an incorrect entry made in the
interest of the English at the trial, as they naturally would wish the
relieving force to appear as large as possible. It has even been
placed as low as three thousand. Among the officers who accompanied
the Maid was a Gascon knight, named La Hire, half freebooter, half
condottiere, a brave and reckless soldier, of whom it is recorded
that, before making a raid, he would offer up the following prayer:--

'I pray my God to do for La Hire what La Hire would do for Him, if He
were Captain and La Hire was God.'

From having been a mighty swearer, owing to Joan of Arc's influence La
Hire broke off this habit, but, in order to give him some scope for
venting his temper, Joan allowed him to swear by his stick.

These are but trivial details: still, they are of interest as showing
what influence a simple village maiden like Joan was able to exert on
those who, from their position and habits of life, might have been
thought to be the last to tolerate such interference. So changed, it
is said, had this rough warrior, La Hire, and many of his
fellow-soldiers become in their habits while with the Maid, that they
were happy to be able to kneel by the side of the sainted maiden and