Catherine le Royer. One day, as
she and Catherine were sitting at their spinning-wheels, who should come
in but Robert de Baudricourt with the _cure_ of the town. Robert had
fancied that perhaps Joan was a witch! He told the priest to perform
some rite of the Church over her, so that if she were a witch she would
be obliged to run away. But when the words were spoken, Joan threw
herself at the knees of the priest, saying, 'Sir, this is ill done of
you, for you have heard my confession and know that I am not a witch.'

Robert was now half disposed to send her to the king and let her take
her chance. But days dragged on, and when Joan was not working she would
be on her knees in the crypt or underground chapel of the Chapel Royal
in Vaucouleurs. Twenty-seven years later a chorister boy told how he
often saw her praying there for France. Now people began to hear of
Joan, and the Duke of Lorraine asked her to visit him at Nancy, where
she bade him lead a better life. He is said to have given her a horse
and some money. On February 12 the story goes that she went to Robert de
Baudricourt.

'You delay too long,' she said. 'On this very day, at Orleans, the
gentle Dauphin has lost a battle.'

[Illustration: 'Sir, this is ill done of you']

This was, in fact, the Battle of Herrings, so called because the English
defeated and cut off a French and Scottish force which attacked them as
they were bringing herrings into camp for provisions in Lent. If this
tale is true, Joan cannot have known of the battle by any common means;
but though it is vouched for by the king's secretary, Joan has told us
nothing about it herself.[8]

[Illustration: JOAN RIDES TO CHINON]

Now the people of Vaucouleurs bought clothes for Joan to wear on her
journey to the Dauphin. They were such clothes as men wear--doublet,
hose, surcoat, boots, and spurs--and Robert de Baudricourt gave Joan a
sword.

In the end this man's dress, which henceforth she always wore, proved
the ruin of Joan. Her enemies, the English and false French, made it one
of their chief charges against her that she dressed, as they chose to
say, immodestly. It is not very clear how she came to wear men's
garments. Jean de Nouillompont, her first friend, asked her if she would
go to the king (a ten days' journey on horseback) dressed as she was, in
her red frock. She answered 'that she would gladly have a man's dress,'
which he says that he provided. Her reason was that she would h