return had shown her devotion by travelling to
Fierbois to do the Saint reverence. For we must not omit to state that
Saint Catherine in company with Saint Margaret had never ceased to
appear to Jeanne both at Chinon and at Tours. She was present at all
those secret assemblies, which the Maid called sometimes her Council
but oftener her Voices, doubtless because they appealed more to her
ears and her mind than to her eyes, despite the burst of light which
sometimes dazzled her, and notwithstanding the crowns she was able to
discern on the heads of the saints. The Voices indicated one sword
among the multitude of those in the Chapel at Fierbois. Messire
Richard Kyrthrizian and Brother Gille Lecourt, both of them priests,
were then custodians of the chapel. Such is the title they assumed
when they signed the accounts of miracles worked by their saint.
Jeanne in a letter caused them to be asked for the sword, which had
been revealed to her. In the letter she said that it would be found
underground, not very deep down, and behind the altar. At least these
were all the directions she was able to give afterwards, and then she
could not quite remember whether it was behind the altar or in front.
Was she able to give the custodians of the chapel any signs by which
to recognise the sword? She never explained this point, and her letter
is lost.[823]

[Footnote 820: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 56, 75, 76, 77.]

[Footnote 821: Abbe Bourasse, _Les miracles de madame sainte Katerine
de Fierboys en Touraine_ (1375-1446), Tours, 1858, in 8vo, _passim_.]

[Footnote 822: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 277. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 69.]

[Footnote 823: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 77. _Les miracles de madame sainte
Katerine_, _passim_.]

It is certain, however, that she believed the sword had been shown to
her in a vision and in no other manner. An armourer of Touraine, whom
she did not know (afterwards she maintained that she had never seen
him), was appointed to carry the letter to Fierbois. The custodians of
the chapel gave him a sword marked with five crosses, or with five
little swords on the blade, not far from the hilt. In what part of the
chapel had they found it? No one knows. A contemporary says it was in
a coffer with some old iron. If it had been buried and hidden it was
not very long before, because the rust could easily be removed by
rubbing. The priests were careful to offer it to the Maid with great
ceremony[824] befor