y of its Creator. The greatest anxiety
was felt concerning the fate of this soul. Some thought it was in
limbo, banished forever from God's sight, but the more general and
better founded opinion was that it was seething in hell; for has not
Saint Augustine demonstrated that souls, little as well as great, are
damned because of original sin. And how could it be otherwise, seeing
that Eve's fall had effaced the divine likeness in this child? He was
destined to eternal death. And to think that with a few drops of water
this death might have been avoided! So terrible a disaster afflicted
not only the poor creature's kinsfolk, but likewise the neighbours and
all good Christians in the town of Lagny. The body was carried to the
Church of Saint-Pierre and placed before the image of Our Lady, which
had been highly venerated ever since the plague of 1128. It was called
Notre-Dame-des-Ardents because it cured burns, and when there were no
burns to be cured it was called Notre-Dame-des-Aidants, or rather Des
Aidances, that is, Our Lady the Helper, because she granted succour to
those in dire necessity.[1968]

[Footnote 1967: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 105.]

[Footnote 1968: A. Denis, _Jeanne d'Arc a Lagny_, Lagny, 1896, in 8vo,
pp. 4 _et seq._ J.A. Lepaire, _Jeanne d'Arc a Lagny_, Lagny, 1880, in
8vo, 38 pages.]

The maidens of the town knelt before her, the little body in their
midst, beseeching her to intercede with her divine Son so that this
little child might have his share in the Redemption brought by our
Saviour.[1969] In such cases the Holy Virgin did not always deny her
powerful intervention. Here it may not be inappropriate to relate a
miracle she had worked thirty-seven years before.

[Footnote 1969: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 105.]

At Paris, in 1393, a sinful creature, finding herself with child,
concealed her pregnancy, and, when her time was come, was without aid
delivered. Then, having stuffed linen into the throat of the girl she
had brought forth, she went and threw her on to the dust-heap outside
La Porte Saint-Martin-des-Champs. But a dog scented the body, and
scratching away the other refuse, discovered it. A devout woman, who
happened to be passing by, took this poor little lifeless creature,
and, followed by more than four hundred people, bore it to the Church
of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, there placed it on the altar of Our Lady,
and kneeling down with the multitude of folk and the monks of the
Abbey, with all her he