and of one of her godmothers
taken and ransomed by men-at-arms; the husband of her cousin-german
Mengette killed by a mortar;[253] her native land overrun by
marauders, burnt, pillaged, laid waste, all the cattle carried off;
nights of terror, dreams of horror,--such were the surroundings of her
childhood.

[Footnote 253: E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles
recherches_, pp. 4-15.]

CHAPTER II

JEANNE'S VOICES

Now, when she was about thirteen, it befell one summer day, at noon,
that while she was in her father's garden she heard a voice that
filled her with a great fear. It came from the right, from towards the
church, and at the same time in the same direction there appeared a
light. The voice said: "I come from God to help thee to live a good
and holy life.[254] Be good, Jeannette, and God will aid thee."

[Footnote 254: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 72, 73, 89, 170.]

It is well known that fasting conduces to the seeing of visions.
Jeanne was accustomed to fast. Had she abstained from food that
morning and if so when had she last partaken of it? We cannot
say.[255]

[Footnote 255: The manuscript runs: _non jejunaverat die praecedenti_.
Quicherat omits _non_. _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52. Cf. _Revue critique_,
March, 1908, p. 215.]

On another day the voice spoke again and repeated, "Jeannette, be
good."

The child did not know whence the voice came. But the third time, as
she listened, she knew it was an angel's voice and she even recognised
the angel to be St. Michael. She could not be mistaken, for she knew
him well. He was the patron saint of the duchy of Bar.[256] She
sometimes saw him on the pillar of church or chapel, in the guise of
a handsome knight, with a crown on his helmet, wearing a coat of mail,
bearing a shield, and transfixing the devil with his lance.[257]
Sometimes he was represented holding the scales in which he weighed
souls, for he was provost of heaven and warden of paradise;[258] at
once the leader of the heavenly hosts and the angel of judgment.[259]
He loved high lands.[260] That is why in Lorraine a chapel had been
dedicated to him on Mount Sombar, north of the town of Toul. In very
remote times he had appeared to the Bishop of Avranches and commanded
him to build a church on Mount Tombe, in such a place as he should
find a bull hidden by thieves; and the site of the building was to
include the whole area overtrodden by the bull. The Abbey of
Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Peril-d