Jeanne failed to take Paris. Because she was listening to her voices, she would take neither advice nor orders. You will recall, she said that the work would have to be carried out swiftly because she would not last beyond a year. Well, the year is up!’

‘Madame, when Charles was crowned at Rheims, Jeanne stood on his right hand. I was on his left. Now Jeanne is a prisoner of the English, who want to kill her. I have come to ask the King what he intends to do to save her.’

Yolande was very vexed. Warlords could certainly be a nuisance in peacetime! This young man would have done better to stay in his forests.

‘Charles is very busy,’ she muttered. ‘I think you’ll be disappointed . . .’

‘I have money, men, horses,’ he went on, quite undeterred. ‘Above all I am determined to save Jeanne.’

Yolande gave a sigh of boredom.

‘Jeanne has condemned herself. You’ll have your work cut out!’

The next scene shows him with the King. He has found a legal argument which he appears to regard as unanswerable.

‘Sire, Jeanne is being tried by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais. Now the Bishop of Beauvais comes under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Rheims, Monseigneur Régnault, your counsellor. Monseigneur Régnault, by virtue of his privilege, must demand that his subordinate Cauchon provide him with the documentary evidence.’

Charles, who was looking out of the window while stroking a white greyhound bitch, made an evasive gesture.

A desperate Gilles descended the castle staircase. He found himself back in the courtyard. His horse was fetched. He was about to mount it when an old soldier, who looked as lonely as Gilles, appeared on the scene. Gilles looked at him. His face lit up. It was La Hire, his old comrade-in-arms. They embraced one another.

‘Where is the marshal going?’ La Hire asked.

‘The marshal is going home,’ Gilles replied. ‘There is nobody here, you hear, nobody!’

‘Nobody?’

‘Nobody to help me save Jeanne from the English. I have pleaded her cause with the Queen Mother and with the King himself: their ears are stopped up, their eyes shifty, their mouths lying. Nobody!’

‘Nobody? And what about me, then?’

‘You?’

‘I, mon maréchal! Let’s go together. Jeanne won’t be surprised to see her companion Gilles and her old friend La Hire turn up. Ah! There you are! she’ll say. I was expecting you. I daresay you had a good time on the way!’

Gilles took his companion off to an inn table.

‘No, we are not going to have a good time on the way,’ he said. ‘The goddams hold the whole of Normandy. We can’t attack them head on. We’ll have to use cunning ― slip in behind their lines with a handful of our best men.’

La Hire suggested two companies of veterans.