risoners as had recourse to her. Sometimes
she rendered captives invisible to their guards; sometimes she broke
bonds, chains, and locks; to wit, those of a nobleman by name Cazin du
Boys, who in 1418 was taken with the garrison of Beaumont-sur-Oise.
Locked in an iron cage, bound with a strong rope on which slept a
Burgundian, he thought on Madame Saint Catherine, and dedicated
himself to this glorious virgin. Immediately the cage was opened.
Sometimes she even constrained the English to unchain their prisoners
themselves and set them free without ransom. That was a great miracle.
One no less great was worked by her on Perrot Chapon, of
Saint-Sauveur, near Luzarches. For a month Perrot had been in bonds in
an English prison, when he dedicated himself to Saint Catherine and
fell asleep. He awoke, still bound, in his own house.

Generally she helped those who helped themselves. Such was the case of
Jean Ducoudray, citizen of Saumur, a prisoner in the castle of Belleme
in 1429. He commended his soul devoutly to Saint Catherine, then
leapt forth, throttled the guard, climbed the ramparts, dropped the
height of two lances, and went out a free man into the country.[463]

[Footnote 463: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _passim_. G.
Launay, Article in _Bull. soc. archeol. du Vendomois_, 1880, vol. xix,
pp. 23-25.]

Perhaps these miracles would have been less frequent had the English
been in greater force in France; but their men were few: in Normandy
they intrenched themselves in towns, abandoning the open country to
soldiers of fortune who ranged the district and captured convoys, thus
greatly promoting the intervention of Madame Saint Catherine.[464]

[Footnote 464: G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La guerre des partisans dans la
Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes_
(1893-1896).]

The prisoners, who had become her votaries and whom she had delivered,
discharged their vows by making the pilgrimage to Fierbois. In her
chapel there, they hung the cords and chains with which they had been
bound, their armour, and sometimes, in special cases, the armour of
the enemy.

This had been done nine months before Jeanne's coming to Fierbois by a
certain knight, Jean du Chastel. He had escaped from the hands of a
captain, who accused him of having committed treason thereby, alleging
that du Chastel had given him his word of honour. Du Chastel on the
other hand maintained that he had not sworn, and he