should have remained quietly at home, when
previously, after having merely dreamed of her being with men-at-arms,
he had threatened that if his sons did not drown her he would with his
own hands. For he must have been aware that at Vaucouleurs she was
living with men-at-arms. Knowing her temperament, he had displayed
great simplicity in letting her go. One cannot help supposing that
those pious persons who believed in Jeanne's goodness, and desired her
to be taken into France for the saving of the kingdom, must have
undertaken to reassure her father and mother concerning their
daughter's manner of life; perhaps they even gave the simple folk to
understand that if Jeanne did go to the King her family would derive
therefrom honour and advantage.

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 129.]

Before or after her journey to Nancy (which is not known), certain of
the townsfolk of Vaucouleurs who believed in the young prophetess
either had made, or purchased for her ready made, a suit of masculine
clothing, a jerkin, cloth doublet, hose laced on to the coat, gaiters,
spurs, a whole equipment of war. Sire Robert gave her a sword.[435]

[Footnote 435: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, pp. 438, 445, 447,
457. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue historique_,
vol. iv, p. 336.]

She had her hair cut round like a boy.[436] Jean de Metz and Bertrand
de Poulengy, with their servants Jean de Honecourt and Julien, were to
accompany her as well as the King's messenger, Colet de Vienne, and
the bowman Richard.[437] There was still some delay and councils were
held, for the soldiers of Antoine de Lorraine, Lord of Joinville,
infested the country. Throughout the land there was nothing but
pillage, robbery, murder, cruel tyranny, the ravishing of women, the
burning of churches and abbeys, and the perpetration of horrible
crimes. Those were the hardest times ever known to man.[438] But the
damsel was not afraid, and said: "In God's name! take me to the gentle
Dauphin, and fear not any trouble or hindrance we may meet."[439]

[Footnote 436: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue
historique_, _ibid._]

[Footnote 437: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 406, 432, 442, 457; vol. iii, p.
209. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xcv, 143 note 3. G. de
Braux and E. de Bouteiller, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. xxix _et
seq._]

[Footnote 438: _Les routiers en Lorraine_, in the _Journal de la
Societe archeologique de Lorraine_, 18