ertain Latin poet, she selected an animal of illustrious
origin, but very old. It was a war horse, which Pierre de Beauvau,
Governor of Maine and Anjou, had given to one of the King's two
brothers; who had both been dead, the one thirteen years, the other
twelve.[818] This steed, or another, was brought to Lapau's house and
the Duke of Alencon went to see it. The horse must likewise be
accoutred, it must be furnished with a chanfrin to protect its head
and one of those wooden saddles with broad pommels which seemed to
encase the rider.[819] A shield was out of the question. Since
chain-armour, which was not proof against blows, had been succeeded by
that plate-armour, on which nothing could make an impression, they had
ceased to be used save in pageants. As for the sword,--the noblest
part of her accoutrement and the bright symbol of strength joined to
loyalty,--Jeanne refused to take that from the royal armourer; she was
resolved to receive it from the hand of Saint Catherine herself.

[Footnote 818: Anonymous poem in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 38 and note.]

[Footnote 819: Capitaine Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc ecuyere_, pp. 146 _et
seq._]

We know that on her coming into France she had stopped at Fierbois and
heard three masses in Saint Catherine's chapel.[820] Therein the
Virgin of Alexandria had many swords, without counting the one Charles
Martel was said to have given her, and which it would not have been
easy to find again. A good Touranian in Touraine, Saint Catherine was
an Armagnac ever on the side of those who fought for the Dauphin
Charles. When captains and soldiers of fortune stood in danger of
death, or were prisoners in the hands of their enemies, she was the
saint they most willingly invoked; for they knew she wished them
well. She did not save them all, but she aided many. They came to
render her thanks; and as a sign of gratitude they offered her their
armour, so that her chapel looked like an armoury.[821] The walls
bristled with swords; and, as gifts had been flowing in for half a
century, ever since the days of King Charles V, the sacristans were
probably in the habit of taking down the old weapons to make room for
the new, hoarding the old steel in some store-house until an
opportunity arrived for selling it.[822] Saint Catherine could not
refuse a sword to the damsel, whom she loved so dearly that every day
and every hour she came down from Paradise to see and talk with her on
earth,--a maiden who in