sin, vol. i, p. 44.
Bueil, _Le jouvencel_, introduction. Royal Pardons, in E. Boutaric,
_Institutions militaires de la France avant les armees permanentes...._
1863, in 8vo, p. 266. _Recit du prieur de Droillet_, ed. Quicherat, in
_Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes_, fourth series, vol. iii, p.
359. Mantellier, _Histoire de la communaute des marchands frequentant
la riviere de Loire_, vol. i, p. 195. Le P. H. Denifle, _La desolation
des eglises, monasteres, hopitaux en France, vers le milieu du XV'e
siecle_, Macon, in 8vo.]

Freebooters in the pay of King Charles, when they pillaged travellers
and held them to ransom, did not stay to ask whether they were
Armagnacs or Burgundians. Indeed, it was after their passage of the
Loire that Bertrand de Poulengy and his companions found themselves
exposed to the greatest danger.

Informed of their approach, certain men-at-arms of the French party
went before and lay in ambush, waiting to surprise them. They intended
to capture the damsel, cast her into a pit, and keep her there beneath
a great stone, in the hope that the King who had sent for her would
give a large sum for her rescue.[458] It was the custom for
freebooters and mercenaries thus to cast travellers into pits
delivering them on payment of ransom. Eighteen years before, at
Corbeil, five men had been kept in a pit on bread and water by
Burgundians. Three of them died, being unable to pay the ransom.[459]
Such a fate very nearly befell Jeanne. But the wretches who were lying
in wait for her, at the moment when they should have struck did
nothing, wherefore is unknown, perhaps because they were afraid of not
being the stronger.[460]

[Footnote 458: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203.]

[Footnote 459: Abbe J.-J. Bourasse, _Les miracles de Madame Sainte
Katerine de Fierboys en Touraine, d'apres un manuscrit de la
Bibliotheque Imperiale_, Paris, in 12mo, 1858, p. 28.]

[Footnote 460: I have here interwoven the account given by Seguin,
_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203, with that of Touroulde, _Trial_, vol. iii,
pp. 86, 87. It seems to me the same incident reported summarily by the
former, inexactly by the latter.]

From Gien, the little company followed the northern boundary of the
duchy of Berry, crossed into Blesois, possibly passed through
Selles-sur-Cher and Saint-Aignan, then, having entered Touraine,
reached the green slopes of Fierbois.[461] There one of the two
heavenly ladies, who daily discoursed familiarly with the pea