nsciously arch, sometimes rough, alike chivalrous and holy,
generally bearing on the inheritance and the anointing of the Dauphin
and the confounding of the English. This was the language of her
Voices, her own, her soul's language. The other, more subtle,
flavoured with allegory and flowers of speech, critical with
scholastic grace, bearing on the Church, suggesting the clerk and
betraying some outside influence. The words she uttered to Sire Robert
touching the children she should bear are of the second sort. They are
an allegory. Her triple birth signifies that the peace of Christendom
shall be born of her work, that after she shall have fulfilled her
divine mission, the Pope, the Emperor, and the King--all three sons of
God--shall cause concord and love to reign in the Church of Jesus
Christ. The apologue is quite clear; and yet a certain amount of
intelligence is necessary for its comprehension. The Captain failed to
understand it; he interpreted it literally and answered accordingly,
for he was a simple fellow and a merry.[390]

[Footnote 390: See _ante_, page 66.]

Jeanne lodged in the town with humble folk, Henri Leroyer and his wife
Catherine, friends of her cousin Lassois. She used to occupy her time
in spinning, being a good spinster; and the little she had she gave to
the poor. With Catherine she went to the parish church.[391] In the
morning, in her most devout moods, she would climb the hill, round the
foot of which cluster the roofs of the town, and enter the chapel of
Sainte Marie-de-Vaucouleurs. This collegiate church, built in the
reign of Philippe VI, adjoined the _chateau_ wherein dwelt the
Commander of Vaucouleurs. The venerable stone nave rose up boldly
towards the east, overlooking the vast extent of hills and meadows,
and dominating the valley where Jeanne had been born and bred. She
used to hear mass and remain long in prayer.[392]

[Footnote 391: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 446.]

[Footnote 392: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 461.]

Under the chapel, in the crypt, there was an image of the Virgin,
ancient and deeply venerated, called Notre-Dame-de-la-Voute.[393] It
worked miracles, but especially on behalf of the poor and needy.
Jeanne delighted to remain in this dark and lonely crypt, where the
saints preferred to visit her.

[Footnote 393: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. cxcxiv.]

One day a young clerk, barely more than a child, who waited in the
chapel, saw the damsel motionless, with hands cla