for arms representing a crown supported upon a
sword between two flowers-de-luce and indicating clearly what was the
aid that the Maid of God was bringing to the realm of France. It is
said that she regretted having to abandon the arms communicated to her
by divine revelation.[1177]

[Footnote 1176: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 78, 117, 182.]

[Footnote 1177: _Ibid._, pp. 117, 300; vol. v, p. 227.]

She prophesied, and, as happens to all prophets, she did not always
foretell what was to come to pass. It was the fate of the prophet
Jonah himself. And doctors explain how the prophecies of true prophets
cannot be all fulfilled.

She had said: "Before Saint John the Baptist's Day, in 1429, there
shall not be one Englishman, howsoever strong and valiant, to be seen
throughout France, either in battle or in the open field."[1178]

[Footnote 1178: Letter written from Germany, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
351. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 33, 46, 62.]

The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24th of
June.

CHAPTER XV

THE TAKING OF JARGEAU--THE BRIDGE OF MEUNG--BEAUGENCY

On Monday, the 6th of June, the King lodged at Saint-Aignan near
Selles-en-Berry.[1179] Among the gentlemen of his company were two
sons of that Dame de Laval who, in her widowhood, had made the mistake
of loving a landless cadet. Andre, the younger, at the age of twenty,
had just passed under the cloud of a disgrace common to nearly all
nobles in those days; his grandmother's second husband, Sire Bertrand
Du Guesclin, had experienced it several times. Taken prisoner in the
chateau of Laval by Sir John Talbot, he had incurred a heavy debt in
order to furnish the sixteen thousand golden crowns of his
ransom.[1180]

[Footnote 1179: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval to the Ladies de
Laval, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 106. L. Jeny and Lanery d'Arc, _Jeanne
D'Arc en Berry_, Paris, 1892, in 8vo, p. 54.]

[Footnote 1180: Bertrand de Broussillon, _La maison de Laval_, vol.
iii, p. 21.]

Being in great need of money, the two young nobles offered their
services to the King, who received them very well, gave them not a
crown, but said he would show them the Maid. And as he was going with
them from Saint-Aignan to Selles, he summoned the Saint,[1181] who
straightway, armed at all points save her head, and lance in hand,
rode out to meet the King. She greeted the two young nobles heartily
and returned with them to Selles. The eldest, Lord Guy, she rec