ought not to do it. They have all confessed, and in their
company I should not fear the uttermost power of the English."[939]

[Footnote 939: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 284, 285.]

In reality, as one may well imagine, whether or no they had confessed,
whether they were near or far from her, these mercenaries committed
all the sins compatible with the simplicity of their minds. But the
innocent damsel did not see them. Sensitive to things invisible, her
eyes were closed to things material.

She was confirmed in her resolution to return to Blois by the captains
who had brought her and who wanted to take her back, alleging the
King's command. They wished to keep her because she brought good luck.
My Lord the Bastard, however, saw serious obstacles and even dangers
in the way of her return.[940] In the state in which he had left the
people of Orleans, if their Maid were not straightway brought before
them they would rise in fury and despair, with cries, threats,
rioting, and violence; everything was to be feared, even massacres. He
entreated the captains, in the King's interest, to agree to Jeanne's
entering Orleans; and without great difficulty, he induced them to
return to Blois without her. But Jeanne did not give in so quickly. He
besought her to decide to cross the Loire. She refused and with such
insistence that he must have realised how difficult it is to influence
a saint. It was necessary for one of the lords who had brought her,
the Sire de Rais or the Sire de Lore, to join his entreaties to those
of the Bastard, and to say to her: "Assuredly you must go, for we
promise to return to you shortly."[941]

[Footnote 940: "_Ex tunc dictus deponens habuit bonam spem de ea et
plus quam ante_," _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 6.]

[Footnote 941: _Timens ne recedere vellent et quod opus remaneret
imperfectum_, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 78. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
286. _Chronique de la fete_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 285. Boucher
de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 61, 62.]

At last, when she heard that Brother Pasquerel would go with them to
Blois, accompanied by the priests and bearing her standard, believing
that her men would have a good spiritual director, she consented to
stay.[942] She crossed the Loire with her brothers, her little
company, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, the Captain La Hire, and
reached Checy, which was then quite a town, with two churches, an
infirmary, and a lepers' h