"All sense of self annihilate, I seem'd "Diffus'd into the scene. "At length a light "Approach'd the spring; I saw my Uncle Claude : His gray locks dripping with the midnight storm, "He came, and caught me in his arms, and cried, My God! my child is safe!" "I felt his words "Pierce in my heart; my soul was overcharged; "I fell upon his neck and told him all; "GOD was within me, as I felt, I spake, "And he believed. "Aye, Chieftain, and the world "Shall soon believe my mission; for the Lord "Will raise up indignation, and pour out "His wrath, and they shall perish who oppress." JOAN OF ARC. THE SECOND BOOK. AND now beneath the horizon westering slow A grateful coolness freshen'd the calm air, Waved on the night breeze, and on his shrunk face He welcomed in; on the white-ember'd hearth "Strangers, your fare is homely," said their Host, "But such it is as we poor countrymen "Earn with hard toil: in faith ye are welcome to it! "I too have borne a lance in younger days; "And would that I were young again to meet "These haughty English in the field of fight; "Such as I was when on the fatal plain "Of Agincourt I met them." "Wert thou, then, "A sharer in that dreadful day's defeat ?" Exclaim'd the Bastard: "Didst thou know the Lord "Of Orleans?" "Know him!" cried the veteran, "I saw him ere the bloody fight began Riding from rank to rank, his beaver up, "The long lance quivering in his mighty grasp. "His eye was wrathful to an enemy, "But for his countrymen it had a smile "Would win all hearts. Looking at thee, Sir Knight, "Methinks I see him now; such was his eye, "Gentle in peace, and such his manly brow." "No tongue but speaketh honour of that name!" "The pilgrim when he saw his towers rejoiced, "Losing all hope because my arm so long "Hath fail'd to win his liberty!" He turn'd His head away to hide the burning shame... Which flush'd his face." But he shall live, Dunois," "Of his own liberty, by his brother's arm "I would fain live "To see that day," replied their aged host: "And down his batter'd arms the blood stream'd fast |