very strict; he was careful
concerning his children's conduct; and Jeanne's behaviour caused him
anxiety. He knew not that she heard Voices. He had no idea that all
day Paradise came down into his garden, that from Heaven to his house
a ladder was let down, on which there came and went without ceasing
more angels than had ever trodden the ladder of the Patriarch Jacob;
neither did he imagine that for Jeannette alone, without any one else
perceiving it, a mystery was being played, a thousand times richer and
finer than those which on feast days were acted on platforms, in towns
like Toul and Nancy. He was miles away from suspecting such incredible
marvels. But what he did see was that his daughter was losing her
senses, that her mind was wandering, and that she was giving utterance
to wild words. He perceived that she could think of nothing but
cavalcades and battles. He must have known something of the escapade
at Vaucouleurs. He was terribly afraid that one day the unhappy child
would go off for good on her wanderings. This agonising anxiety
haunted him even in his sleep. One night he dreamed that he saw her
fleeing with men-at-arms; and this dream was so vivid that he
remembered it when he awoke. For several days he said over and over
again to his sons, Jean and Pierre: "If I really believed that what I
dreamed of my daughter would ever come true, I would rather see her
drowned by you; and if you would not do it I would drown her
myself."[349]

[Footnote 349: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 131, 132, 219.]

Isabelle repeated these words to her daughter hoping that they might
alarm her and cause her to correct her ways. Devout as she was,
Jeanne's mother shared her father's fears. The idea that their
daughter was in danger of becoming a worthless creature was a cruel
thought to these good people. In those troubled times there was a
whole multitude of these wild women whom the men-at-arms carried with
them on horseback. Each soldier had his own.

It is not uncommon for saints in their youth by the strangeness of
their behaviour to give rise to such suspicions. And Jeanne displayed
those signs of sainthood. She was the talk of the village. Folk
pointed at her mockingly, saying: "There goes she who is to restore
France and the royal house."[350]

[Footnote 350: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 421, cf. p. 433, "_et alii juvenes
de ea deridebant_," said Colin's son, referring to her piety.]

The neighbours had no difficulty in finding a c