in folio, p. 341.]

[Footnote 264: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de la Pucelle_, ms. fr.
10,448, fol. 13. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations, xxiv.]

[Footnote 265: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 173, 248, 249.]

One day he said to her: "Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret will come
to thee. Act according to their advice; for they are appointed to
guide thee and counsel thee in all thou hast to do, and thou mayest
believe what they shall say unto thee." And these things came to pass
as the Lord had ordained.[266]

[Footnote 266: _Ibid._, p. 170.]

This promise filled her with great joy, for she loved them both.
Madame Sainte Marguerite was highly honoured in the kingdom of
France, where she was a great benefactress. She helped women in
labour,[267] and protected the peasant at work in the fields. She was
the patron saint of flax-spinners, of procurers of wet-nurses, of
vellum-dressers, and of bleachers of wool. Her precious relics in a
reliquary, carried on a mule's back, were paraded by ecclesiastics
through towns and villages. Plenteous alms[268] were showered upon the
exhibitors in return for permission to touch the relics. Many times
had Jeanne seen Madame Sainte Marguerite at church, painted life-size,
a holy-water sprinkler in her hand, her foot on a dragon's head.[269]
She was acquainted with her history as it was related in those days,
somewhat on the lines of the following narrative.

[Footnote 267: _La vierge Marguerite substituee a la Lucine antique_,
analysis of an unpublished poem of the fifteenth century, Paris, 1885,
in 8vo, p. 2. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, vol. i, ch. vi. L'Abbe J.B.
Thiers, _Traite des superstitions qui regarde les sacrements selon
l'Ecriture sainte_, Paris, 1697 (4 vols. in 12mo), vol. i, p. 109.]

[Footnote 268: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations, ccxxxiv, p. 272.]

[Footnote 269: Abbe Bourgaut, _Guide du pelerin a Domremy_, Nancy,
1878, in 12mo, p. 60. E. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 65-72.]

The blessed Margaret was born at Antioch. Her father, Theodosius, was
a priest of the Gentiles. She was put out to nurse and secretly
baptised. One day when she was in her fifteenth year, as she was
watching the flock belonging to her nurse, the governor Olibrius saw
her, and, struck by her great beauty, conceived a great passion for
her. Wherefore he said to his servants: "Go, bring me that girl, in
order that if she be free I may marry her, o