see
_ante_, p. 108, note 1); and it bears trace of the resistance of a
hand which was being guided.]

[Footnote 1929: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162. Varin, _Archives
legislatives de la ville de Reims_, vol. i, p. 596. H. Jadart, _Jeanne
d'Arc a Reims_, pp. 106, 107.]

Touching the succour to be expected from the Duke of Brittany, the
Maid was labouring under a delusion. Like all other prophetesses she
was ignorant of what was passing around her. Despite her failures, she
believed in her good fortune; she doubted herself no more than she
doubted God; and she was eager to pursue the fulfilment of her
mission. "Ye shall soon have tidings of me," she said to the townsfolk
of Reims. A few days after, and she left Sully to go into France and
fight, on the expiration of the truces.

It has been said that she feigned an expedition of pleasure and set
out without taking leave of the King, that it was a kind of innocent
stratagem, an honourable flight.[1930] But it was nothing of the
sort.[1931] The Maid gathered a company of some hundred horse,
sixty-eight archers and cross-bowmen, and two trumpeters, commanded by
a Lombard captain, Bartolomeo Baretta.[1932] In this company were
Italian men-at-arms, bearing broad shields, like some who had come to
Orleans at the time of the siege; possibly they were the same.[1933]
She set out at the head of this company, with her brothers and her
steward, the Sire Jean d'Aulon. She was in the hands of Jean d'Aulon,
and Jean d'Aulon was in the hands of the Sire de la Tremouille, to
whom he owed money.[1934] The good squire would not have followed the
Maid against the King's will.

[Footnote 1930: Perceval de Cagny, who was in the pay of the Duke of
Alencon, is the only chronicler to suggest it, p. 173.]

[Footnote 1931: "In the year 1430, Jeanne the Maid started from the
country of Berry accompanied by divers fighting men...." Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120.]

[Footnote 1932: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120. Martial
d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustellier, vol. i, p. 117. Note
concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 177. P. Champion,
_Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 36, note 2.]

[Footnote 1933: _Journal du siege_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1934: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
293, note 3. True, the loan was made later; none the less the
dependence of Jean d'Aulon on the Sire de la Tremouille existed at
this time.]

The flying squadron of _beguine