"The new companion shall do so," answered Noémi. A deep colour flushed her olive skin. "For that I ask you to follow me, as well as that other comrade who was as inclined to be civil as you to be insolent. First, send down below and bid the two servants of the Tardes go on to Ste. Soure and tarry there till I go for them." "You--to Ste. Soure?" said her father. "Not now. But I do not desire to have the Tardes' men with me. They are not of the Company." "What do you mean?" "That I will justify my election," said Noémi. "And for that I take these two mates--and no others." "It is not well that I go," said the sulky man. "But, if go I must, it is unwillingly." "And I go with all my heart," said he whose name was Roger. "What do you intend to do, child?" asked her father, puzzled and uneasy. "This is a farce. Take off the cross." "No, it is no farce. I will not remove the cross till I have shown that I am worthy to be enrolled in your band." "Then what will you do?" "That is my secret." "And you demand two of the companions?" "Yes; two of the companions--he named Roger, and----" "Amanieu?" "Roger and Amanieu. I ask that they may accompany me and serve me and do my bidding--on my first _chevauchée_." "La Pucelle! Another Joan! To the English! To the English! Vive la Pucelle de Domme! We will pit her against the Pucelle de Domrémi." The men shouted, hammered the table, and tossed the knucklebones about. They treated the matter as a joke. Amanieu, the sulky man, was very angry at being fixed upon to make one of a party that would incur ridicule and expose him to the jeers of his fellows. Le Gros Guillem now interfered. "If my daughter has said you are to attend, and I consent, you go. Guard her well." Amanieu murmured no more. There was no insubordination in a Company. The serving-men of the Tarde brothers were dismissed, and then Noémi prepared to depart along with her new attendants. Her father asked no further questions. The horses were brought from a stable cut in the rocks. They were nimble and sure of footing. Access to the stable was only to be had by a drawbridge let fall over a chasm, and from the further side of the gap a narrow track descended rapidly to the bottom of the valley. At Noémi's request the men had drawn on jackets that concealed their red crosses, and no one seeing the little party would have conjectured that the girl was attended by some of the greatest ruffians and cut-throats in the country. She knew the character of the men, but was not afraid. The fear of her father entertained by all the band, and the discipline maintained in the Company, would prevent them from doing her harm.