soldier above theirs, and extinguish the glory of their names with
its shadow.”
“Why, look here, my friend,” I said, “do you know that you have
hit out a most remarkable idea there? Do you realize the gigantic
proportions of it? For look you; to be a general of vast renown,
what is that? Nothing–history is clogged and confused with them;
one cannot keep their names in his memory, there are so many.
But a common soldier of supreme renown–why, he would stand
alone! He would the be one moon in a firmament of mustard-seed
stars; his name would outlast the human race! My friend, who gave
you that idea?”
He was ready to burst with happiness, but he suppressed betrayal
of it as well as he could. He simply waved the compliment aside
with his hand and said, with complacency:
“It is nothing. I have them often–ideas like that–and even greater
ones. I do not consider this one much.”
“You astonish me; you do, indeed. So it is really your own?”
“Quite. And there is plenty more where it came from”–tapping his
head with his finger, and taking occasion at the same time to cant
his morion over his right ear, which gave him a very self-satisfied
air–“I do not need to borrow my ideas, like No‰l Rainguesson.”
“Speaking of No‰l, when did you see him last?”
“Half an hour ago. He is sleeping yonder like a corpse. Rode with
us last night.”
I felt a great upleap in my heart, and said to myself, now I am at
rest and glad; I will never doubt her prophecies again. Then I said
aloud:
“It gives me joy. It makes me proud of our village. There is not
keeping our lion-hearts at home in these great times, I see that.”
“Lion-heart! Who–that baby? Why, he begged like a dog to be let
off. Cried, and said he wanted to go to his mother. Him a
lion-heart!–that tumble-bug!”
“Dear me, why I supposed he volunteered, of course. Didn’t he?”
“Oh, yes, he volunteered the way people do to the headsman. Why,
when he found I was coming up from Domremy to volunteer, he
asked me to let him come along in my protection, and see the
crowds and the excitement. Well, we arrived and saw the torches
filing out at the Castle, and ran there, and the governor had him
seized, along with four more, and he begged to be let off, and I
begged for his place, and atg last the governor allowed me to join,
but wouldn’t let No‰l off, because he was disgusted with him, he
was such a cry-baby. Yes, and much good he’ll do the King’s
service; he’ll eat for six and run for sixteen. I hate a pygmy with
half a heart and nine stomachs!”
“Why, this is very surprising news to me, and I am sorry and
disappointed to hear it. I thought he was a very manly fellow.”
The Paladin gave me an outraged look, and said:
“I don’t see how you can talk like that, I’m sure I don’t. I don’t see
how you could have got such a notion. I don’t dislike him, and I’m
not saying these things out of prejudice, for I don’t allow myself to
have prejudices against people. I like him, and have always
comraded with him from the cradle, but he must allow me to speak
my mind about his faults, and I am willing he shall speak his about
mine, if I have any. And, true enough, maybe I have; but I reckon
they’ll bear inspection–I have that idea, anyway. A manly fellow!
You should have heard him whine and wail and swear, last night,
because the saddle hurt him. Why didn’t the saddle hurt me?
Pooh–I was as much at home in it as if I had been born there. And
yet it was the first time I was ever on a horse. All those old soldiers
admired my riding; they said they had never seen anything like it.
But him–why, they had to hold him on, all the time.”
An odor as of breakfast came stealing through the wood; the
Paladin unconsciously inflated his nostrils in lustful response, and