in the
Crusades. She raised it and pressed it to her.

Catherine's limbs would not do her bidding. She would fain have risen in
a hospitable bustle, but she seemed to be held motionless. Not by fear,
but by an exquisite and happy awe. She remembered afterwards that from
the Maid's rough clothes had come a faint savour of wood-smoke, as from
one who has been tending a bonfire in the autumn stubble.

"God be with you, lady, and with the good knight, your husband. Remember
my word to you, that every wife is like Mary the Blessed and may bear a
saviour of mankind. The road is long, but the ways of Heaven are sure."

Catherine stretched out her arms, for a longing so fierce had awoke in
her that it gave her power to move again. Never in her life had she felt
such a hunger of wistfulness. But Jeanne evaded her embrace. She stood
poised as if listening.

"They are calling me. I go. Adieu, sweet sister."

A light shone in her face which did not come from the westering sun. To
Catherine there was no sound of voices, but the Maid seemed to hear and
answer. She raised her hand as if in blessing and passed out.

Catherine sat long in an entranced silence. Waves of utter longing
flowed over her, till she fell on her knees and prayer passionately to
her saints, among whom not the least was that grey-tunicked Maid whose
eyes seemed doorways into heaven. Her tirewoman found her asleep on her
faldstool.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Early next morning there came posts to Beaumanoir, men on weary horses
with a tragic message. On the day before, in the market-place of Rouen,
the chief among the daughters of God had journeyed through the fire to
Paradise.

CHAPTER 6. THE WOOD OF LIFE

The Lady Catherine de Laval, in her own right Countess of Beaumanoir,
and mistress of fiefs and manors, rights of chase and warren, mills and
hospices, the like of which were not in Picardy, was happy in all things
but her family. Her one son had fallen in his youth in an obscure fray
in Guienne, leaving two motherless boys who, after her husband's death,
were the chief business of life to the Countess Catherine. The elder,
Aimery, grew to manhood after the fashion of the men of her own house,
a somewhat heavy country gentleman, much set upon rustic sports, slow
at learning, and averse alike from camps and cities. The ambition of the
grandmother found nothing to feed upon in the young lord of Beaumanoir.
He was kind, virtuous an