At length however the impatience and despair were more than she could bear;the Court was then at Sully and the spring had begun with its longer days and more passable roads.Without a word to anyone the Maid left the castle.The war had rolled towards these princely walls,as near as Melun,which was threatened by the English.A little band of intimate servants and associates,her two brothers,and a few faithful followers,were with her.So far as we know she never saw Charles or his courtiers again.They arrived at Melun in time to witness and to take part in the repulse of the English,and it was here that a communication was make to Jeanne by her saints of which afterwards there was frequent mention.Little had been said of them during her dark time of inaction,and their tone was no longer as of old.It was on the side of the moat of Melun where probably she was superintending some necessary work to strengthen the fortifications or to put them in better order for defence,that this message reached her.The "Voices"which so often had urged her to victory and engaged the faith of heaven for her success,had now a word to say,secret and personal to herself.It was that she should be taken prisoner;and the date was fixed,before the St.Jean.It was the middle of April when this communication was made and the Feast of St.Jean,as everybody knows,is in the end of June;two months only to work in,to strike another blow for France.The "Voices"bade her not to fear,that God would sustain her.But it would be impossible not to be startled by such a sudden intimation in the midst of her reviving plans.The Maid made one terrified prayer,that God would let her die when she was taken,not subject her to long imprisonment;her heart prophetically sprang to a sudden consciousness of the most likely,most terrible end that lay before her,for she had been often enough threatened with the stake and the fire to know what to expect.But the saintly voices made no reply.They bade her be strong and of good courage:is not that the all-sustaining,all-delusive message for every martyr?It was the will of God,and His support and sustaining power,which we often take to mean deliverance,but which is not always so--were promised.She asked where this terrible thing was to happen,but received no reply.
Natural and simple as she was,she confessed afterwards that had she known she was to be taken on any certain day,she would not have gone out to meet the catastrophe unless she had been forced by evident duty to do so.But this was not revealed to her."Before the St.Jean!"It must almost have seemed a guarantee that until that time or near it she was safe.She would seem to have said nothing immediately of this vision to sadden those about her.
In the meantime,however,there were other adventures in store for her.From Melun to Lagny was no long journey,but it was through a country full of enemies in which she must have been subject to attack at every corner of every road or field.And she had not been long in the latter place which is said to have had a garrison of Scots,when news came of the passing of a band of Burgundians,a troop of raiders indeed,ravaging the country,taking advantage of the war to rob and lay waste churches,villages,and the growing fields wherever they passed.The troops was led by Franquet d'Arras,a famous "/pillard/,"robber of God and man.Jeanne set out to encounter this bandit with a party of some four hundred men,and various noble companions,among whom,however,we find no name familiar in her previous career,a certain Hugh Kennedy,a Scot,who is to be met with in various records of fighting,being one of the most notable among them.Franquet's band fought vigorously but were cut to pieces,and the leader was taken prisoner.When this man was brought back to Lagny,a prisoner to be ransomed,and whom Jeanne desired to exchange for one of her own side,the law laid claim to him as a criminal.He was a prisoner of war:what was it the Maid's duty to do?The question is hotly debated by the historians and it was brought against her at her trial.He was a murderer,a robber,the scourge of the country--especially to the poor whom Jeanne protected and cared for everywhere,was he pitiless and cruel.She gave him up to justice,and he was tried,condemned,and beheaded.If it was wrong from a military point of view,it was her only error,and shows how little there was with which to reproach her.
In Lagny other things passed of a more private nature.Every day and all day long her "voices"repeated their message in her ears."Before the St.Jean."She repeated it to some of her closest comrades but left herself no time to dwell upon it.Still worse than the giving up of Franquet was the supposed resuscitation of a child,born dead,which its parents implored her to pray for that it might live again to be baptised.She explained the story to her judges afterwards.It was the habit of the time,nay,we believe continues to this day in some primitive places,to lay the dead infant on the altar in such a case,in hope of a miracle."It is true,"said Jeanne,"that the maidens of the town were all assembled in the church praying God to restore life that it might be baptised.It is also true that I went and prayed with them.The child opened its eyes,yawned three or four times,was christened and died.This is all I know."The miracle is not one that will find much credit nowadays.But the devout custom was at least simple and intelligible enough,though it afforded an excellent occasion to attribute witchcraft to the one among those maidens who was not of Lagny but of God.
