o promise, and he lost his foolish law-suit. She and her
parents soon went back to Domremy.[7]

HOW JOAN THE MAID WENT AGAIN TO VAUCOULEURS

In Domremy they found that the enemy had ruined everything. Their cattle
were safe, for they had been driven to Neufchateau, but when Joan looked
from her father's garden to the church, she saw nothing but a heap of
smoking ruins. She had to go to say her prayers now at the church of
Greux. These things only made her feel more deeply the sorrows of her
country. The time was drawing near when she had prophesied that the
Dauphin was to receive help from heaven--namely, in the Lent of 1429. On
that year the season was held more than commonly sacred, for Good Friday
and the Annunciation fell on the same day. So, early in January, 1429,
Joan the Maid turned her back on Domremy, which she was never to see
again. Her cousin Lassois came and asked leave for Joan to visit him
again; she said good-bye to her father and mother, and to her friend
Mengette, but to her dearest friend Hauvette she did not even say
good-bye, for she could not bear it. She went to her cousin's house at
Burey, and there she stayed for six weeks, hearing bad news of the
siege of Orleans by the English. Meanwhile, Robert de Baudricourt, in
Vaucouleurs, was not easy in his mind, for he was likely to lose the
protection of Rene of Anjou, the Duc de Bar, who was on the point of
joining the English. Thus Robert may have been more inclined to listen
to Joan than when he bade her cousin box her ears and take her back to
her father. A squire named Jean de Nouillompont met Joan one day.

'Well, my lass,' said he, 'is our king to be driven from France, and are
we all to become English?'

'I have come here,' said Joan, 'to bid Robert de Baudricourt lead me to
the king, but he will not listen to me. And yet to the king I must go,
even if I walk my legs down to the knees; for none in all the
world--king, nor duke, nor the King of Scotland's daughter--can save
France, but myself only. _Certes_, I would rather stay and spin with my
poor mother, for to fight is not my calling; but I must go and I must
fight, for so my Lord will have it.'

'And who is your Lord?' said Jean de Nouillompont.

'He is God,' said the Maiden.

'Then, so help me God, I shall take you to the king,' said Jean, putting
her hands in his. 'When do we start?'

'To-day is better than to-morrow,' said the Maid.

Joan was now staying in Vaucouleurs with