er to the
King."

"Before she could be believed, to clerks and to scholars was she taken
and thoroughly examined. She said she was come from God, and history
proved her saying to be true, for Merlin, the Sibyl and Bede had seen
her in the spirit. In their books they point to her as the saviour of
France, and in their prophecies they let wit of her, saying: 'In the
French wars she shall bear the banner.' And indeed they relate all the
manner of her history."

We are not astonished that Dame Christine should have been acquainted
with the Sibylline poems; for it is known that she was well versed in
the writings of the ancients. But we perceive that the obviously
mutilated prophecy of Merlin the Magician and the apocryphal
chronogram of the Venerable Bede had come under her notice. The
predictions and verses of the Armagnac ecclesiastics were spread
abroad everywhere with amazing rapidity.[1667]

[Footnote 1667: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 133, 338, 340 _et seq._; vol. iv,
pp. 305, 480; vol. v, p. 12.]

Dame Christine's views concerning the Maid accord with those of the
doctors of the French party; and the poem she wrote in her convent in
many passages bears resemblance to the treatise of the Archbishop of
Embrun.

There it is said:

"The goodness of her life proves that Jeanne possesses the grace of
God.

"It was made manifest, when at the siege of Orleans her might revealed
itself. Never was miracle plainer. God did so succour his own people,
that the strength of the enemy was but as that of a dead dog. They
were taken or slain.

"Honour to the feminine sex, God loves it. A damsel of sixteen, who is
not weighed down by armour and weapons, even though she be bred to
endure hardness, is not that a matter beyond nature? The enemy flees
before her. Many eyes behold it.

"She goeth forth capturing towns and castles. She is the first captain
of our host. Such power had not Hector or Achilles. But God, who leads
her, does all.

"And you, ye men-at-arms, who suffer durance vile and risk your lives
for the right, be ye faithful: in heaven shall ye have reward and
glory, for whosoever fighteth for the just cause, winneth Paradise.

"Know ye that by her the English shall be cast down, for it is the
will of God, who inclineth his ear to the voice of the good folk, whom
they desired to overthrow. The blood of the slain crieth against
them."

In the shadow of her convent Dame Christine shares the hope common to
every nobl