Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/84

For the heat of flight was over; of my home555
I thought, and of my wife and little ones
In bitterness of heart. The gallant man,
Whose by the chance of war I had become,
Had pity, and he loos'd my hands and said,
Frenchman! I would have killed thee in the battle560
But my arm shrinks at murder—get thee hence."
"It was the will of heaven that I should live
Childless and old to think upon the past
And wish that I had perish'd!"
The old man
Wept as he spake. "Ye may perhaps have heard565
Of the hard siege so long by Rouen endur'd.
I dwelt there strangers, I had then a wife
And I had children tenderly beloved,
Who I did hope should cheer me in old age
And close mine eyes. The tale of Misery570
May-hap were tedious, or I could relate
Much of that dreadful siege."
The Maid replied

Anxious