' Then came the learned Seguin; 'a right sour man
was he,' said those who knew him.

Seguin was a Limousin, and the Limousins spoke in a queer accent at
which the other French were always laughing.

'In what language do your Voices speak?' asked he.

'In a better language than _yours_,' said Joan, and the bishops smiled
at the country quip.

'We may not believe in you,' said Seguin, 'unless you show us a sign.'

'I did not come to Poictiers to work miracles,' said Joan; 'take me to
Orleans, and I shall show you the signs that I am sent to do.' And show
them she did.

Joan never pretended to work miracles. Though, in that age, people
easily believed in miracles, it is curious that none worth mentioning
were invented about Joan in her own time. She knew things in some
strange way sometimes, but the real miracle was her extraordinary
wisdom, genius, courage, and power of enduring hardship.

At last, after examining witnesses from Domremy, and the Queen of Sicily
and other great ladies to whom Joan was entrusted, the clergy found
nothing in her but 'goodness, humility, frank maidenhood, piety,
honesty, and simplicity.' As for her wearing a man's dress, the
Archbishop of Embrun said to the king, 'It is more becoming to do these
things in man's gear, since they have to be done amongst men.'

The king therefore made up his mind at last. Jean and Pierre, Joan's
brothers, were to ride with her to Orleans; her old friends, her first
friends, Jean de Nouillompont and Bertrand de Poulengy, had never left
her. She was given a squire, Jean d'Aulon, a very good man, and a page,
Louis de Coutes, and a chaplain. The king gave Joan armour and horses,
and offered her a sword. But her Voices told her that, behind the altar
of St. Catherine de Fierbois, where she heard mass on her way to Chinon,
there was an old sword, with five crosses on the blade, buried in the
earth. That sword she was to wear. A man whom Joan did not know, and had
never seen, was sent from Tours, and found the sword in the place which
she described. The sword was cleaned of rust, and the king gave her two
sheaths, one of velvet, one of cloth of gold, but Joan had a leather
sheath made for use in war. She also commanded a banner to be made, with
the Lilies of France on a white field. There was also a picture of God,
holding the round world, and two angels at the sides, with the sacred
words, JHESU MARIA. On another flag was the Annunciation, the Virgin
holding