66, p. 161. Dr. A. Lapierre, _La
guerre de cent ans dans l'Argonne et le Rethelois_, Sedan, 1900, in
8vo.]

[Footnote 439: _Journal du siege_ (interpolation); _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 272 (a document of doubtful authority owing to its
hagiographical character).]

At length, on a day in February, so it is said, the little company
issued forth from Vaucouleurs by La Porte de France.[440]

[Footnote 440: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, p. 437. _Chronique du
Mont-Saint-Michel_, vol. i, p. 30. De Boismarmin, _Memoire sur la date
de l'arrivee de Jeanne d'Arc a Chinon_, in the _Bulletin du comite des
travaux historiques et scientifiques_, 1892, pp. 350-359. Ulysse
Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 10, note 1. Jeanne had
returned to Vaucouleurs about the first Sunday in Lent, the 13th of
February, 1429 (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 437). Bertrand de Poulengy says
that the journey to Chinon (6th March) lasted eleven days, and that
sometimes they travelled by night only (_ibid._). It is difficult to
admit that they started from Vaucouleurs on the 23rd of February, and
that about 660 kilometres were traversed in eleven days.]

A few friends who had followed her so far watched her go. Among them
were her hosts, Henri Leroyer and Catherine, and Messire Jean Colin,
canon of Saint-Nicolas, near Vaucouleurs, to whom Jeanne had confessed
several times.[441] They trembled for their saint as they thought of
the perils of the way and the length of the journey.

[Footnote 441: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 431, 446.]

"How can you," they asked her, "set forth on such a journey when there
are men-at-arms on every hand?" But out of the serene peace of her
heart she answered them:

"I do not fear men-at-arms; my way has been made plain before me. If
there be men-at-arms my Lord God will make a way for me to go to my
Lord Dauphin. For that am I come."[442]

[Footnote 442: _Ibid._, p. 449.]

Sire Robert was present at her departure. According to the customary
formula he took an oath from each of the men-at-arms that they would
surely and safely conduct her whom he confided to them. Then, being a
man of little faith, he said to Jeanne in lieu of farewell: "Go! and
come what may."[443] And the little company went off into the mist,
which at that season envelops the meadows of the Meuse.

[Footnote 443: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 55.]

They were obliged to avoid frequented roads and to beware especially
of passing by Joinville, Montiers-e