"Where safest they might rush upon the foe.. "The perilous task I chose, then desperate

"Of happiness."

So saying, they approach'd

The gate. The centinel, soon as he heard
Thitherward footsteps, with uplifted lance
Challenged the darkling travellers. At their voice
He draws the strong bolts back, and painful turns
The massy entrance. To the careful chiefs

They pass. At midnight of their extreme state
Counselling they sat, serious and stern. To them
Conrade.

"Assembled Warriors! sent from God

"There is a holy Maid by miracles

"Made manifest. Twelve hundred chosen men

"Follow her hallowed standard. These Dunois,

"The strength of France, arrays.

"Ye shall behold their march."

With the next noon

Astonishment

Seized the convened Chiefs, and joy by doubt

Little repress'd. "Open the granaries !"
Xaintrailles exclaim'd; "give we to all the host

"

With hand unsparing now the plenteous meal; "To-morrow we are safe! for Heaven all just "Has seen our sufferings and decreed their end. "Let the glad tidings echo thro' the town!

"

"God is with us!"

Graville replied,

"Rest not in too full faith,"

"6 on this miraculous aid.

"Some frenzied female whose wild phantasy,

Shaping vain dreams, infects the credulous

"With her own madness! that Dunois is there,
"Leading in arms twelve hundred chosen men,
"Cheers me: yet let not we our little food.
"Be lavish'd, lest the warrior in the fight
"Should haply fail, and Orleans be the prey
"Of England!"

"Chief! I tell thee," Conrade cried,

"I did myself behold the sepulchre,

"Fulfilling what she spake, give up those arms

"That surely for no common end the grave
"Thro' many an age has held inviolate.
"She is the Delegate of the Most High,

"And shall deliver Orleans!"

Gaucour then,

"Be it as thou hast said. High hope I feel,
"For to no vulgar tale would Conrade yield
cr Belief, or he the Bastard. Our small stores
"Must yield us, ere another week elapse,
"To death or England. Tell thro' all our troops
"There is a holy Virgin sent from God;

They in that faith invincible shall war

"With more than mortal fury."

Thus the Chief,

And what he said seem'd good. The men of Orleans, Long by their foemen bayed, a victim band,

To war, and woe, and want, such transport felt,

*

As when the Mexicans, with eager eye

"It was the belief of the Mexicans, that at the conclusion of one of their centuries the sun and earth would be destroyed.

Gazing to Huixachtla's distant top,
On that last night, doubtful if ever morn
Again shall cheer them, mark the mystic fire
Flame on the breast of some brave prisoner,
A dreadful altar. As they see the blaze
Beaming on Iztapalapan's near towers,
Or on Tezcuco's calmy lake flash'd far,
Songs of thanksgiving and the shout of joy
Wake the loud echo; the glad husband tears
The mantling aloe from the female's face,
And children, now deliver'd from the dread
Of everlasting darkness, look abroad,

Hail the good omen, and expect the sun
Uninjur'd still to run his flaming race.

On the last night of every century they extinguished all their fires, covered the faces of the women and children, and expected the end of the world. The kindling of the sacred fire on the mountain of Huixachtla was believed an omen of their safety.

See the History of Mexico, by the Abbe Clavigero.

Thus whilst in that besieged town the night
Wain'd sleepless, silent slept the hallowed host.
And now the morning came. From his hard couch,
Lightly upstarting and bedight in arms,

The Bastard moved along, with provident eye
Marshalling the troops. All high in hope they march;
And now the sun shot from the southern sky
His noon-tide radiance, when afar they hear
The hum of men, and mark the distant towers
Of Orleans, and the bulwarks of the foe,
And many a streamer wantoning in air.
These as they saw and thought of all the ills
Their brethren had endured, beleager'd there
For many a month; such ardor for the fight
Burnt in each bosom, as young Ali felt

When to the assembled tribe Mohammed spake,
Asking for one his Vizir. Fierce in faith

Forth from the race of Hashem stept the youth,
66 Prophet of God! lo-I will be the man!"
And well did Ali merit that high post,