who had taken flight, the men-at-arms
had destroyed all their goods. The monastery once as proud as a
fortress, with its watchman's tower, was now nothing but a heap of
blackened ruins. And now on holy days the folk of Domremy must needs
go to hear mass in the church of Greux.[372]

[Footnote 372: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 396, _passim_.]

So full of danger were the times that the villagers were ordered to
keep in fortified houses and castles.[373]

[Footnote 373: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clxxx, 230.]

Meanwhile the English were laying siege to the town of Orleans, which
belonged to their prisoner Duke Charles. By so doing they acted badly,
for, having possession of his body, they ought to have respected his
property.[374] They built fortified towers round the city of Orleans,
the very heart of France; and it was said that they had entrenched
themselves there in great strength.[375] Now Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret loved the Land of the Lilies; they were the sworn friends and
gentle cousins of the Dauphin Charles. They talked to the shepherd
maid of the misfortunes of the kingdom and continued to say: "Leave
thy village and go into France."[376]

[Footnote 374: _Mistere du siege_, v, 497.]

[Footnote 375: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, chs. xxxiv, xxxv. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, chs. xxxii, xxxv; _Journal du siege_, pp. 2 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 216.]

Jeanne was all the more impatient to set forth because she had herself
announced the time of her arrival in France, and that time was drawing
near. She had told the Commander of Vaucouleurs that succour should
come to the Dauphin before mid Lent. She did not want to make her
Voices lie.[377]

[Footnote 377: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 456.]

Towards the middle of January occurred the opportunity she was looking
for of returning to Burey. At this time Durand Lassois' wife, Jeanne
le Vauseul, was brought to bed.[378] It was the custom in the country
for the young kinswomen and friends of the mother to attend and wait
upon her and her babe. A good and kindly custom, followed all the more
readily because of the opportunity it gave of pleasant meetings and
cheerful gossip.[379] Jeanne urged her uncle to ask her father that
she might be sent to tend the sick woman, and Lassois consented: he
was always ready to do what his niece asked him, and perhaps his
complaisance was encouraged by pious persons of some importance.[380]
But how