How Joan Saved the Army of the West; and Saw the Fight on Braddock Down explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Loyalty and Betrayal

  Joan's loyalty to Jack and the Royalist cause contrasts with the potential betrayal of the army if the warning had not been delivered.

• Love and Sacrifice

  Joan risks her safety to deliver the King's letter, sacrificing her own comfort for Jack's mission.

• War and Its Cost

  The chapter depicts the physical and emotional toll of war through Jack's wound and the sight of fleeing soldiers.

Characters to notice

• Jack Marvel

  Wounded and recovering in Joan's cottage, he entrusts Joan with the King's letter and later hears the battle.

• Joan

  Hides Jack from troopers, delivers the King's letter to Sir Ralph Hopton, and saves the Royalist army.

• Jan Tergagle

  The cat, mentioned as a companion to Joan's father.

• Sir Ralph Hopton

  The Royalist general to whom Joan delivers the King's letter.

• Earl of Stamford

  Mentioned as the commander of rebel forces at Launceston.

• Ruthen

  Leader of the rebel vanguard at Liskeard.

• Lord Mohun

  His house at Boconnoc is near Braddock.

Key passages

• “And so, having fed me, and set my bed straight, she sat on the floor beside me (for the better hearing), and in her uncouth tongue, told how I had been saved.”

  After feeding me and making me comfortable, Joan sat beside me and explained how she had rescued me.

  Joan recounts her clever deception of the troopers.

• “I told of the King's letter in my breast, and how I found the Lord Stamford's men at Launceston; how that Ruthen, with the vanguard of the rebels, was now at Liskeard, with but a bare day's march between the two, and none but I to carry the warning.”

  I explained that I carried the King's letter and that the rebel forces under Stamford and Ruthen were dangerously close to joining against the Royalists.

  Jack conveys the urgency of his mission to Joan.

• “She hid the letter in her bosom, and stepp'd to the door. On the threshold she turned— 'Jack—forgot to ax: what be all this bloodshed about?' 'For Church and King, Joan.' 'H'm: same knowledge ha' I o' both—an' that's naught. But I dearly loves fair play.'”

  Joan tucked the letter away and paused at the door to ask what the war was about. When Jack said it was for Church and King, she admitted she knew little of either but believed in fairness.

  Joan's pragmatic and independent view of the conflict.

• “I caught at the door post and cried, faint with the sudden joy— 'Thou angel, Joan!—thou angel!'”

  Overcome with joy, I grabbed the doorframe and exclaimed that Joan was an angel.

  Jack's relief upon hearing the sounds of battle, knowing Joan succeeded.