he rats
came out of their holes and followed him; he led them straight to the
river, into which they ran and were drowned. On his return he asked for
the promised reward, which was refused him, apparently on account of the
facility with which he had exterminated the rats. The next day, which
was a fete day, he chose the moment when the older inhabitants were at
church, and by means of another flute which he began to play, all the
boys in the town above the age of fourteen, to the number of a hundred
and thirty, assembled round him; he led them to the neighbouring
mountain, named Kopfelberg, under which is a sewer for the town, and
where criminals are executed; these boys disappeared and were never seen
afterwards.

A young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the matter,
and brought the news of it to the town.

XLVII

JEANNE D'ARC

FERRIER'S "Apparitions"

Upon her trial, as it is repeated by Chartier, she spoke with the utmost
simplicity and firmness of her visions: "Que souvent alloit a une belle
fontaine au pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nommoit bonne fontaine aux
Fees Nostre Seigneur, at en icelluy lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils
avoient fiebvre ils alloient pour recouvrer garison; et la alloit
souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine
ombroit; et s'apparurent a elle Ste Katerine et Ste Marguerite qui lui
dirent qu'elle allast a ung Cappitaine qu'elles lui nommerent, laquelle
y alla sans prendre conge ni a pere ni a mere; lequel Cappitaine la
vestit en guise d'homme et l'armoit et lui ceint l'epee, et luy bailla
un escuyer et quatre varlets; et en ce point fut montee sur un bon
cheval; et en ce point vint aut Roy de France, et lui dit que du
Commandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et qu'elle le feroit le plus
grand Seigneur du Monde, et qu'il fut ordonne que tretou ceulx qui lui
desobeiroient fussent occis sans mercy, et que St Michel et plusieurs
anges lui avoient baille une Couronne moult riche pour lui."

XLVIII

ANNE WALKER

Local Records

In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the
county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world,
and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept
his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but
too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a
mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one D