he Devil should have
received the gift of prophecy they replied that the Holy Ghost is able
to reveal his secrets to whomsoever he pleases, for had he not caused
the Sibyls to speak, and opened the mouth of Balaam's ass?

Merlin had seen in a vision Sire Bertrand du Guesclin in the guise of
a warrior bearing an eagle on his shield. This was remembered after
the Constable had wrought his great deeds.[691]

[Footnote 691: Cuvelier, _Le poeme de Du Guesclin_, l. 3285.
Francisque-Michel and Th. Wright, _Vie de Merlin attribuee a Geoffroy
de Monmouth, suivie des propheties de ce barde tirees de l'histoire
des Bretons_, Paris, 1837, in 8vo, pp. 67 _et seq._ La Villemarque,
_Myrdhin ou Merlin l'Enchanteur, son histoire, ses oeuvres, son
influence_, n. ed., Paris, 1862, in 12mo. D'Arbois de Jubainville,
_Merlin est-il un personnage reel?_ in the _Revue des questions
historiques_, 1868, pp. 559-568. Lefevre-Pontalis, _Morosini_, vol.
iv, supplement xvi. "[Geoffrey of Monmouth] represented Merlin as
having prophesied all the events of the history of Britain until the
year 1135 in which he wrote. The _Historia Regum_ was very popular in
the ecclesiastical world. Its legends were held to be facts. The
exactness with which its prognostications had been fulfilled down to
1135 was marvelled at, and an attempt was made to interpret the
prophecies relating to subsequent times." Gaston Paris, _La
litterature francaise au moyen age_, 1890, pp. 86-104.]

In the prophecies of this Wise Man the English believed no less firmly
than the French. When Arthur of Brittany, Count of Richemont, was
taken prisoner, held to ransom, and brought before King Henry, the
latter, when he perceived a boar on the arms of the Duke, broke forth
into rejoicing; for he called to mind the words of Merlin who had
said, "A Prince of Armorica, called Arthur, with a boar for his crest,
shall conquer England, and when he shall have made an end of the
English folk he shall re-people the land with a Breton race."[692]

[Footnote 692: Le Baud, _Histoire de Bretagne_, Paris, 1638, in fol.,
p. 451.]

Now during the Lent of 1429 there was circulated among the Armagnacs
this prophecy, taken from a book of the prophecies of Merlin: "From
the town of the Bois-Chenu there shall come forth a maid for the
healing of the nation. When she hath stormed every citadel, with her
breath she shall dry up all the springs. Bitter tears shall she shed
and fill the Island with a terribl