d the date was fixed, before the St. Jean.
It was the middle of April when this communication was made and the
Feast of St. Jean, as everybody knows, is in the end of June; two months
only to work in, to strike another blow for France. The "Voices" bade
her not to fear, that God would sustain her. But it would be impossible
not to be startled by such a sudden intimation in the midst of her
reviving plans. The Maid made one terrified prayer, that God would let
her die when she was taken, not subject her to long imprisonment; her
heart prophetically sprang to a sudden consciousness of the most likely,
most terrible end that lay before her, for she had been often enough
threatened with the stake and the fire to know what to expect. But
the saintly voices made no reply. They bade her be strong and of good
courage: is not that the all-sustaining, all-delusive message for every
martyr? It was the will of God, and His support and sustaining power,
which we often take to mean deliverance, but which is not always
so--were promised. She asked where this terrible thing was to happen,
but received no reply. Natural and simple as she was, she confessed
afterwards that had she known she was to be taken on any certain day,
she would not have gone out to meet the catastrophe unless she had
been forced by evident duty to do so. But this was not revealed to her.
"Before the St. Jean!" It must almost have seemed a guarantee that until
that time or near it she was safe. She would seem to have said nothing
immediately of this vision to sadden those about her.

In the meantime, however, there were other adventures in store for her.
From Melun to Lagny was no long journey, but it was through a country
full of enemies in which she must have been subject to attack at every
corner of every road or field. And she had not been long in the latter
place which is said to have had a garrison of Scots, when news came
of the passing of a band of Burgundians, a troop of raiders indeed,
ravaging the country, taking advantage of the war to rob and lay waste
churches, villages, and the growing fields wherever they passed. The
troops was led by Franquet d'Arras, a famous "_pillard_," robber of God
and man. Jeanne set out to encounter this bandit with a party of some
four hundred men, and various noble companions, among whom, however, we
find no name familiar in her previous career, a certain Hugh Kennedy, a
Scot, who is to be met with in various records of fi