thy intercession, I promise help from on high." From the riven neck of
the virgin flowed forth milk instead of blood.

Thus Madame Sainte Catherine passed from this world to celestial
happiness, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of November, which was
a Friday.[277]

[Footnote 277: Voragine, _La legende doree_, 1846, pp. 789-797.
Douhet, _Dictionnaire des legendes_, 1855, pp. 824-836.]

My Lord Saint Michael, the Archangel, did not forget his promise. The
ladies Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came as he had said. On
their very first visit the young peasant maid vowed to them to
preserve her virginity as long as it should please God.[278] If there
were any meaning in such a promise, Jeanne, however old she may then
have been, could not have been quite a child. And it seems probable
that the angel and the saints appeared to her first when she was on
the threshold of womanhood, that is, if she ever became a woman.[279]

[Footnote 278: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_,
p. 29. When we come to the trial, we shall consider whether it be
possible to reconcile Jeanne's assertions with regard to this vow.]

[Footnote 279: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128; vol. iii, p. 219.]

The saints soon entered into familiar relations with her.[280] They
came to the village every day, and often several times a day. When she
saw them appear in a ray of light coming down from heaven, shining and
clad like queens, with golden crowns on their heads, wearing rich and
precious jewels, the village maiden crossed herself devoutly and
curtsied low.[281] And because they were ladies of good breeding, they
returned her salutation. Each one had her own particular manner of
greeting, and it was by this manner that Jeanne distinguished one from
the other, for the dazzling light of their countenances rendered it
impossible for her to look them in the face. They graciously permitted
their earth-born friend to touch their feet, to kiss the hems of their
garments, and to inhale rapturously the sweet perfume they
emitted.[282] They addressed her courteously,[283] as it seemed to
Jeanne. They called the lowly damsel daughter of God. They taught her
to live well and go to church. Without always having anything very new
to say to her, since they came so constantly, they spoke to her of
things which filled her with joy, and, after they had disappeared,
Jeanne ardently pressed her lips to the ground their feet had
trodden.[284]

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