For habit is strong with us all, and when things went amiss the oath would rise to the lips of the men about her, and be uttered without a thought.
But that was a thing she could not bear.

Her sweet pained face would be turned upon the speaker.

Her clear, ringing tones would ask the question: "Shall we, who go forward in the name of the Lord, dare to take His holy name lightly upon our lips?
What are His own words?
Swear not at all.

Shall we not seek to obey Him?
Are we not vowed to His service?
And must not the soldier be obedient above all others?
Shall we mock Him by calling ourselves His followers, and yet doing that without a thought which He hath forbidden ?" Not once nor twice, but many times the Maid had to speak such words as these; but she never feared to speak them, and her courage and her purity of heart and life threw its spell over the rough men she had led, and they became docile in her hands like children, ready to worship the very ground she trod on.
Long afterwards it was told me by one of mine own men-at-arms that there had been a regular plot amongst the rougher of the soldiers at the outset to do her a mischief, and to sell her into the hands of the Burgundians or the English.

But even before leaving Vaucouleurs the men had wavered, half ashamed of their own doubts and thoughts, and before we had proceeded two days' journey forward, all, to a man, would have laid down their lives in her service.
The only matter that troubled the Maid was that we were unable to hear Mass, as she longed to do daily.