he provinces south
of the Loire. This was the result of opposition to his claim on the part
of his mother, Isabeau, who had always hated the Dauphin, and who, in
her Treaty of Troyes, set aside her son's rights to the throne, and
married his sister Catherine to the King of England, thus securing to
their children that succession to the throne which was the lawful right
of the Dauphin.

France was indeed in the throes of a great crisis, and every remote
duchy or tiny village heard rumours of the vast struggle going on in
their well loved land, but still the party who were loyal to the Dauphin
looked confidently for the day when he should be crowned at Rheims,
where French kings for a thousand years had taken oath, although still
the opposing party was growing in power and possessions.

Quiet little Domremy lying folded in the embrace of its peaceful valley
was thrilled by the tales of chance pilgrims passing through the
village, who, stopping for a drink of water or a bite of food, would
recount to eager listeners the current saying that, "France, lost by a
woman,--and that woman, Isabeau, mother of the Dauphin,--should be saved
by a maid who would come with arms and armour from an ancient wood."

Now, towering high above little Domremy stretches a great forest called
the Ancient Wood, and to the village folk there was in all France no
other Ancient Wood than this, and so when they heard the travellers'
tales they whispered to one another in hushed voices and with
awe-stricken faces that the Wonderful Maid of Prophecy was to come from
their own midst, but who was she, where was she, and to whom would she
reveal herself?

Many of these queries came to the ears of children busy near their
elders, while they spun and talked, and as Jeanne d'Arc, now grown into
a bright intelligent young girl, listened to the prophecy and the
questions, all else became of no importance except the plight of France
and the restoring of the Dauphin to his rightful inheritance. But to her
elders or companions she gave no evidence of this absorption, seeming
entirely occupied with her out of door tasks such as tending her
father's sheep, helping to harvest grain, or to plough the fields, or at
other times with her mother indoors, weaving and spinning,--for there
was plenty of work in both house and field to keep all the children
busy.

In leisure hours Jeanne played and danced and sang as merrily as the
other children, who gathered often ar