d to their care, and
who already inspired most of them with respect? Certain of them, it is
true, believing her not to be in earnest, would willingly have turned
her to ridicule; but if one of them had played her the trick of
representing La Beauce as La Sologne, how was it there was no one to
undeceive her? How could Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain, her steward,
and the honest squire d'Aulon, have become the accomplices of so
clumsy a jest? It is all very mysterious, and, when one comes to think
of it, what is most mysterious is that Jeanne should have expressly
asked to go to Orleans through La Beauce. Since she was so ignorant of
the way that when crossing the Blois bridge she never suspected that
she was going into La Sologne, there is not much likelihood of her
realising so exactly the lie of Orleans as to choose between entering
it from the south or the west. A damsel knowing naught beyond the name
of the gate through which she is to enter the city, and who is yet
persuaded by malicious captains to take one road rather than another,
sounds too much like a Mother Goose's tale.

[Footnote 924: "_Et cuidoit bien qu'ils deussent passer par devers les
bastides du siege devers la Beausse._" _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
281.]

[Footnote 925: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285 (the Chronicle here
amplifies the evidence of Dunois, vol. iii, p. 67).]

Jeanne knew no more of Orleans than she did of Babylon. We may
therefore conjecture that there was a misunderstanding. She had spoken
neither of Sologne nor of Beauce. Her Voices had told her that the
English would not budge. They had not shown her a picture of the town,
they had not given her either maps or plans: soldiers did not use
them. Doubtless Jeanne had said to the captains and priests what she
was soon to repeat to the Bastard: "I must go to Talbot and the
English." And the priests and soldiers had replied quite frankly:
"Jeanne, we are going to Talbot and the English."[926] They had
thought they were speaking the truth, since Talbot, who was conducting
the siege, would be before them, so to speak, from whatever side they
approached the town. But apparently they had not thoroughly understood
what the Maid said, and the Maid had not understood what they had
replied. For now she was angry and sad at finding herself separated
from the town by the sands and waters of the river. What was there to
vex her in this? Those who were with her then did not discover; and
perh