veterans to conduct it. It was a ridiculous exhibition, but we learned
something, and Joan was satisfied and complimented us. She did not take
any instruction herself or go through the evolutions and manoeuvres, but
merely sat her horse like a martial little statue and looked on. That was
sufficient for her, you see. She would not miss or forget a detail of the
lesson, she would take it all in with her eye and her mind, and apply it
afterward with as much certainty and confidence as if she had already
practised it.

We now made three night marches of twelve or thirteen leagues each,
riding in peace and undisturbed, being taken for a roving band of Free
Companions. Country-folk were glad to have that sort of people go by
without stopping. Still, they were very wearying marches, and not
comfortable, for the bridges were few and the streams many, and as we had
to ford them we found the water dismally cold, and afterward had to bed
ourselves, still wet, on the frosty or snowy ground, and get warm as we
might and sleep if we could, for it would not have been prudent to build
fires. Our energies languished under these hardships and deadly fatigues,
but Joan's did not. Her step kept its spring and firmness and her eye its
fire. We could only wonder at this, we could not explain it.

But if we had had hard times before, I know not what to call the five
nights that now followed, for the marches were as fatiguing, the baths as
cold, and we were ambuscaded seven times in addition, and lost two
novices and three veterans in the resulting fights. The news had leaked
out and gone abroad that the inspired Virgin of Vaucouleurs was making
for the King with an escort, and all the roads were being watched now.

These five nights disheartened the command a good deal. This was
aggravated by a discovery which Noel made, and which he promptly made