it
pronounced judgment on questions of nullity of marriage or validity of
betrothal.

[Footnote 369: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 128, 219. E. Misset, _Jeanne d'Arc
Champenoise_, 1895, in 8vo, p. 28.]

The curious part of Jeanne's case is that her parents were against
her, and on the side of the young man. It was in defiance of their
wishes that she defended the suit and appeared before the official.
Later she declared that in this matter she had disobeyed them, and
that it was the only time she had failed in the submission she owed
her parents.[370]

[Footnote 370: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 219: _quibus obediebat in omnibus,
nisi in processu Tullensi_.]

The journey from Neufchateau to Toul and back involved travelling more
than twenty leagues on foot, over roads infested with bands of armed
men, through a country desolated by fire and sword, from which the
peasants of Domremy had recently fled in a panic. To such a journey,
however, she made up her mind against the will of her parents.

Possibly she may have appeared before the judge at Toul, not once but
two or three times. And there was a great chance of her having to
journey day and night with her so-called betrothed, for he was passing
over the same road at the same time. Her Voices bade her fear nothing.
Before the judge she swore to speak the truth, and denied having made
any promise of marriage.

She had done nothing wrong. But an evil interpretation was set upon
conduct which proceeded alone from an innocence both singular and
heroic. At Neufchateau it was said that on those journeys she had
consumed all her substance. But what was her substance? Alas! she had
set out with nothing. She may have been driven to beg her bread from
door to door. Saints receive alms as they give them: for the love of
God. There was a story that her betrothed seeing her living during the
trial in company with bad women, had abandoned his demand for justice,
renouncing a bride of such bad repute.[371] Such calumnies were only
too readily believed.

[Footnote 371: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 215. Article 9 of the deed of
accusation is drawn up as the result of an inquiry made at
Neufchateau.]

After a fortnight's sojourn at Neufchateau, Jacques d'Arc and his
family returned to Domremy. The orchard, the house, the monastery, the
village, the fields,--in what a state of desolation did they behold
them! The soldiers had plundered, ravaged, burnt everything. Unable to
exact ransom from the villeins