dens. She worked
miracles. Jeanne used to visit her with her sister Catherine and the
boys and girls of the neighbourhood, or quite alone. And as often as
she could she lit a candle in honour of the heavenly lady.[183]

[Footnote 181: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 404.]

[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 423.]

[Footnote 183: _Trial_, index, at the word _Bermont_. Du Haldat,
_Notice sur la chapelle de Belmont_, in the _Memoires de l'Academie
Stanislas de Nancy_, 1833-1834, p. 96. E. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 95. Lanery d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, p. 330.]

A mile and a quarter west of Domremy was a hill covered with a dense
wood, which few dared enter for fear of boars and wolves. Wolves were
the terror of the countryside. The village mayors gave rewards for
every head of a wolf or wolf-cub brought them.[184] This wood, which
Jeanne could see from her threshold, was the Bois Chesnu, the wood of
oaks, or possibly the hoary [_chenu_] wood, the old forest.[185] We
shall see later how this Bois Chesnu was the subject of a prophecy of
Merlin the Magician.

[Footnote 184: Alexis Monteil, _Histoire des Francois_, vol. i, p.
91.]

[Footnote 185: _Trial_, index, under the words _Bois Chesnu_.]

At the foot of the hill, towards the village, was a spring[186] on the
margin of which gooseberry bushes intertwined their branches of greyish
green. It was called the Gooseberry Spring or the Blackthorn Spring.[187]
If, as was thought by a graduate of the University of Paris,[188] Jeanne
described it as _La Fontaine-aux-Bonnes-Fees-Notre-Seigneur_, it must
have been because the village people called it by that name. By making
use of such a term it would seem as if those rustic souls were trying
to Christianise the nymphs of the woods and waters, in whom certain
teachers discerned the demons which the heathen once worshipped as
goddesses.[189] It was quite true. Goddesses as much feared and
venerated as the Parcae had come to be called Fates,[190] and to them
had been attributed power over the destinies of men. But, fallen long
since from their powerful and high estate, these village fairies had
grown as simple as the people among whom they lived. They were invited
to baptisms, and a place at table was laid for them in the room next
the mother's. At these festivals they ate alone and came and went
without any one's knowing; people avoided spying upon their movements
for fear of displeasing them. It is the custom of divine personages to