no need of men-at-arms." She was not disconcerted: "Ah! my God," was her reply, "the men-at-arms will fight, and God will give the victory.”

Another was more difficult to be satisfied—a Limousin, brother Seguin, professor of theology at the university of Poitiers, a "very sour man," says the chronicle. He asked her in his Limousin French, what tongue that pretended celestial voice spoke? Jehanne answered, a little too hastily, "A better than yours."-"Dost thou believe in God?" said the doctor, in a rage: "Now, God wills us not to have faith in thy words, except thou showest a sign." She replied, "I have not come to Poitiers to show signs or work miracles; my sign will be the raising of the siege of Orleans. Give me men-at-arms, few or many, and I will go."

Meanwhile, it happened at Poitiers as at Vaucouleurs, her sanctity seized the hearts of the people. In a moment, all were for her. Women, ladies, citizens' wives, all flocked to see her at the house where she was staying, with the wife of an advocate to the parliament, and all returned full of emotion. Men went 'there too; and counsellors, advocates, old hardened judges, who had suffered themselves to be taken thither incredulously, when they had heard her, wept even as the women did, and said, "The maid is of God."

The examiners themselves went to see her, with the king's equerry; and on their recommencing their neverending examination, quoting learnedly to her, and proving to her from the writings of all the doctors that she ought not to be believed, "Hearken,"

she said to them, "there is more in God's book than in yours.

I

know neither A nor B; but I come commissioned by God to raise the siege of Orléans, and to have the dauphin crowned at Rheims. . . . First, however, I must write to the English, and summon them to depart; God will have it so. Have you paper and ink? Write as I dictate. To you! Suffort, Classidas, and La Poule, I summon you, on the part of the King of heaven, to depart to England." They wrote as she dictated; she had won over her very judges.

They pronounced as their opinion, that it was lawful to have recourse to the young maiden. The archbishop of Embrun, who had been consulted, pronounced similarly; supporting his opinion by showing how God had frequently revealed to virgins, for in

stance, to the sibyls, what he concealed from men; how the demon could not make a covenant with a virgin; and recommending it to be ascertained whether Jehanne were a virgin. Thus, being pushed to extremity, and either not being able or being unwilling to explain the delicate distinction betwixt good and evil revelations, knowledge humbly referred a ghostly matter to a corporeal test, and made this grave question of the spirit depend on woman's mystery.

As the doctors could not decide, the ladies did; and the honor of the Pucelle was vindicated by a jury, with the good queen of Sicily, the king's mother-in-law, at their head. This farce over; and some Franciscans who had been deputed to inquire into Jehanne's character in her own country bringing the most favorable report,

there was no time to lose.

Orléans

was crying out for succor, and Dunois sent entreaty upon entreaty. The Pucelle was equipped, and a kind of establishment arranged for her. For squire she had a brave knight, of mature years, Jean Daulon, one of Dunois's household, and of its best conducted and most discreet members. She had, also, a noble page, two heralds-at-arms, a maître d'hôtel, and two valets her brother, Pierre Darc, too, was one of her attendants. Jean Pasquerel, a brother eremite of the order of St. Augustin, was given her for confessor. Generally speaking, the monks, particularly the mendicants, were staunch supporters of this marvel of inspiration.

And it was, in truth, for those who beheld the sight, a marvel to see for the first time Jehanne Darc in her