others always standing in the light and he so content to save himself fuss and argument and let them have their way at the fall of m we the of the personal staff were with the father and uncle at the inn in their private parlor drinks and breaking ground for a homely talk about and the neighbors when a large parcel arrived from to be kept till she came and soon she came herself and sent her guard away saying she would take one of her father s rooms and sleep under his roof and so be at home again of the staff rose and stood as was meet until of arc made us sit then she turned and saw that the old men had gotten up too and were standing in an embarrassed and way which made her want to laugh but she kept it in as not wishing to hurt them aud got them to their seats and down between them and took a hand of each of them upon her knees and her own hands in them and said now we will have no more ceremony but be kin and as in other times for i am done with the great wars now and you two will take me home with you and i shall see � she stopped and for a moment her happy face as if a doubt or a had flitted through her mind then it cleared again and she said with a passionate yearning oh if the day were but come and we could start the old father was surprised and said i why child are you in earnest would you i leave doing these wonders that make to be praised by everybody while there is still so glory to be won and would you go out from grand with princes and to be al again and a nobody it is not rational no said the uncle it is amazing tc hear and indeed not it is a stranger thing to hear her say she will stop the than it was to hear her say she would begin it and i who speak to you can say in all truth that that was the � � � c t r � aa hear i i � t n if i t s v r r y r n� fi ir ei z z i r i � f h r e n x � u of arc such a woman � she and and and wakes nights and lies so thinking � that is worrying worrying about you and when the night storms go raging along she and says ah god pity her she is out in this with her poor wet soldiers and when the and the thunder she her hands and saying it is like the a cannon and the flash and yonder somewhere she is riding down upon the guns and i not there to protect her ah poor mother it is pity it is pity yes a most strange woman as i have noticed a many times when there is news of a victory and ail the village goes mad with pride and joy she rushes here and there in a frenzy till she finds out the one only thing she cares to know � that you are safe then down she goes on her knees in the dirt and praises god as long as there is any breath left in her body and all on your account for she never the battle once and always she says now it is over � now france is saved � now she will come home � and always is disappointed and goes about mourning don t father it breaks my heart i will be so good to her when i get home i will do her work for her and be her comfort and she shall not suffer any more through me there was some more talk of this then uncle i said of arc you have done the will of god dear and are it is true and none may deny it but what of the king you are his best soldier what if he command you to stay that was a � and sudden it took a moment or two to recover from the shock of it then she said quite simply and the king is my lord i am his servant she was silent and thoughtful a little while then she brightened up and said cheerily but let us drive such thoughts away � this is no time for them tell me about home so the two old talked and talked talked about everything and everybody in the village and it was good to hear out of her kindness tried to get us into the conversation but that failed of course she was the commander in chief we were her name was the in france we were invisible she was the comrade of princes and heroes we of the humble and obscure she held rank above all personages and all whatsoever in the whole earth by right of bearing her commission direct from god to put it in one word she was of arc � and when that is said all is said to us she was divine between her and us lay the abyss which that word we could not be familiar with her no you can see yourselves that that would have been impossible and yet she was so human too and so good and of arc kind and dear and loving and cheery and charming and and unaffected those are all the words i think of now but they are not enough no they are too few and and to tell it all or tell the half those simple old men didn t realize her they couldn t they had never known any people but human beings and so they had no other standard 