It was an ogre, that war; an ogre that went about for near a hundred
years, crunching men and dripping blood from its jaws. And with her
little hand that child of seventeen struck him down; and yonder he lies
stretched on the field of Patay, and will not get up any more while this
old world lasts.



32 The Joyous News Flies Fast

THE GREAT news of Patay was carried over the whole of France in twenty
hours, people said. I do not know as to that; but one thing is sure,
anyway: the moment a man got it he flew shouting and glorifying God and
told his neighbor; and that neighbor flew with it to the next homestead;
and so on and so on without resting the word traveled; and when a man got
it in the night, at what hour soever, he jumped out of his bed and bore
the blessed message along. And the joy that went with it was like the
light that flows across the land when an eclipse is receding from the
face of the sun; and, indeed, you may say that France had lain in an
eclipse this long time; yes, buried in a black gloom which these
beneficent tidings were sweeping away now before the onrush of their
white splendor.

The news beat the flying enemy to Yeuville, and the town rose against its
English masters and shut the gates against their brethren. It flew to
Mont Pipeau, to Saint Simon, and to this, that, and the other English
fortress; and straightway the garrison applied the torch and took to the
fields and the woods. A detachment of our army occupied Meung and
pillaged it.