4. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i,
p. 286.]

La Dame des Armoises only spent a fortnight with them. She left the
city towards the end of July. Her departure would seem to have been
hasty and sudden. She was invited to a supper, at which she was to
have been presented with eight pints of wine, but when the wine was
served she had gone, and the banquet had to be held without her.[2663]
Jean Quillier and Thevanon of Bourges were present. This Thevanon may
have been that Thevenin Villedart, with whom Jeanne's brothers dwelt
during the siege.[2664] In Jean Quillier we recognise the young draper
who, in June, 1429, had furnished fine Brussels cloth of purple,
wherewith to make a gown for the Maid.[2665]

[Footnote 2663: Extracts from the accounts of the town of Orleans, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 331-332. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 287.]

[Footnote 2664: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 260.]

[Footnote 2665: _Ibid._, pp. 112-113.]

La Dame des Armoises had gone to Tours, where she gave herself out to
be the true Jeanne. She gave the Bailie of Touraine a letter for the
King; and the Bailie undertook to see that it was delivered to the
Prince, who was then at Orleans, having arrived there but shortly
after Jeanne's departure. The Bailie of Touraine in 1439 was none
other than that Guillaume Bellier who ten years before as lieutenant
of Chinon had received the Maid into his house and committed her to
the care of his devout wife.[2666]

[Footnote 2666: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17; vol. v, p. 327.]

To the messenger, who bore this letter, Guillaume Bellier also gave a
note for the King written by himself, and "touching the deeds of la
Dame des Armoises."[2667] We know nothing of its purport.[2668]

[Footnote 2667: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 332. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La
fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 23-24.]

[Footnote 2668: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 332.]

Shortly afterwards the Dame went off into Poitou. There she placed
herself at the service of Seigneur Gille de Rais, Marshal of
France.[2669] He it was who in his early youth had conducted the Maid
to Orleans, had been with her throughout the coronation campaign, had
fought at her side before the walls of Paris. During Jeanne's
captivity he had occupied Louviers and pushed on boldly to Rouen. Now
throughout the length and breadth of his vast domains he was
kidnapping children, mingling magic with debauchery, and offering to
demons the blood and the limbs of his countless victims. His monstrous
do