along the foot of
wooded hills. The two sides here engaged in a battle, in which the
victorious Damoiseau took thirty-five prisoners, whom he afterwards
liberated after having exacted a high ransom, as was his wont. Among
these prisoners was the Squire Thiesselin de Vittel, whose wife had
held Jacques d'Arc's second daughter over the baptismal font. From one
of the hills of her village, Jeanne, who was then seven or a little
older, could see the battle in which her godmother's husband was taken
prisoner.[228]

[Footnote 228: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 420-426. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a
Domremy_, p. lxiv.]

Meanwhile matters grew worse and worse in the kingdom of France. This
was well known at Domremy, situated as it was on the highroad, and
hearing the news brought by wayfarers.[229] Thus it was that the
villagers heard of the murder of Duke John of Burgundy on the Bridge
at Montereau, when the Dauphin's Councillors made him pay the price of
the blood he had shed in the Rue Barbette. These Councillors, however,
struck a bad bargain; for the murder on the Bridge brought their young
Prince very low. There followed the war between the Armagnacs and the
Burgundians. From this war the English, the obstinate enemies of the
kingdom, who for two hundred years had held Guyenne and carried on a
prosperous trade there,[230] sucked no small advantage. But Guyenne
was far away, and perhaps no one at Domremy knew that it had once been
a part of the domain of the kings of France. On the other hand every
one was aware that during the recent trouble the English had recrossed
the sea and had been welcomed by my Lord Philip, son of the late Duke
John. They occupied Normandy, Maine, Picardy, l'Ile-de-France, and
Paris the great city.[231] Now in France the English were bitterly
hated and greatly feared on account of their reputation for cruelty.
Not that they were really more wicked than other nations.[232] In
Normandy, their king, Henry, had caused women and property to be
respected in all places under his dominion. But war is in itself
cruel, and whosoever wages war in a country is rightly hated by the
people of that country. The English were accused of treachery, and
not always wrongly accused, for good faith is rare among men. They
were ridiculed in various ways. Playing upon their name in Latin and
in French, they were called angels. Now if they were angels they were
assuredly bad angels. They denied God, and their favorite oath
_Goddam_