mained as to whether fairies still frequented the beech-tree.
Some believed they did, others thought they did not. Beatrix, another
of Jeanne's godmothers, used to say: "I have heard tell that fairies
came to the tree in the old days. But for their sins they come there
no longer."[198]

[Footnote 196: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 404.]

[Footnote 197: _Ibid._, p. 404, _passim_. _Simple Crayon de la
noblesse des ducs de Lorraine et de Bar_, in Le Brun des Charmettes'
_Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 266. Jules Baudot, _Les
princesses Yolande et les ducs de Bar de la famille des Valois_, first
part. _Melusine_, Paris, 1901, in 8vo, p. 121.]

[Footnote 198: _Propter eorum peccata_, in the _Trial_, vol. ii, p.
396. There is no doubt as to the meaning of these words.]

This simple-minded woman meant that the fairies were the enemies of
God and that the priest had driven them away. Jean Morel, Jeanne's
godfather, believed the same.[199]

[Footnote 199: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 390.]

[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMREMY IN 1419]

Indeed on Ascension Eve, on Rogation days and Ember days, crosses were
carried through the fields and the priest went to _l'Arbre-des-Fees_
and chanted the Gospel of St. John. He chanted it also at the
Gooseberry Spring and at the other springs in the parish.[200] For the
exorcising of evil spirits there was nothing like the Gospel of St.
John.[201]

[Footnote 200: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 397.]

[Footnote 201: _Ibid._, p. 390. Bergier, _Dictionnaire de theologie_,
under the word _Conjuration_.]

My Lord Aubert d'Ourches held that there had been no fairies at
Domremy for twenty or thirty years.[202] On the other hand there were
those in the village who believed that Christians still held converse
with them and that Thursday was the trysting day.

[Footnote 202: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 187.]

Yet another of Jeanne's godmothers, the wife of the mayor Aubrit, had
with her own eyes seen fairies under the tree. She had told her
goddaughter. And Aubrit's wife was known to be no witch or soothsayer
but a good woman and a circumspect.[203]

[Footnote 203: _Ibid._, pp. 67, 209.]

In all this Jeanne suspected witchcraft. For her own part she had
never met the fairies under the tree. But she would not have said that
she had not seen fairies elsewhere.[204] Fairies are not like angels;
they do not always appear what they really are.[205]

[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, pp. 178, 209 _et seq._]

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