“Of a surety she is no witch.  She could never stand thus if there was aught of evil in her.  Truly she is a marvellous Maid.  If this thing be of the Lord, let us not fight against Him.”

The trial was over.  The Maid received the blessing of the Abbe, who, if not convinced of the sacredness of her mission, was yet impotent to prove aught against her.  It is strange to me, looking back at those days, how far less ready of heart the ecclesiastics were to receive her testimony and recognise in her the messenger of the Most High than were the soldiers, whether the generals whom she afterwards came to know, or the men who crowded to fight beneath her banner.  One would have thought that to priests and clergy a greater grace and power of understanding would have been vouchsafed; but so far from this, they always held her in doubt and suspicion, and were her secret foes from first to last.

I made it my task to see her safely home; and as we went, I asked: 

“Was it an offence to you, fair Maid, that he should thus seek to test and try you?”

“Not an offence to me, Seigneur,” she answered gently, “but he should not have had need to do it.  For he did hear my confession on Friday.  Therefore he should have known better.  It is no offence to me, save inasmuch as it doth seem a slighting of my Lord.”

The people flocked around her as she passed through the streets.  It was wonderful how the common townsfolk believed in her.  Already she was spoken of as a deliverer and a saviour of her country.  Nay, more, her gentleness and sweetness so won upon the hearts of those who came in contact with her, that mothers prayed of her to come and visit their sick children, or to speak words of comfort to those in pain and suffering; and such was the comfort and strength she brought with her, that there were whispers of miraculous cures being performed by her.  In truth, I have no knowledge myself of any miracle performed by her, and the Maid denied that she possessed such gifts of healing.  But that she brought comfort and joy and peace with her I can well believe, and she had some skill with the sick whom she tended in her own village, so that it is likely that some may have begun to mend from the time she began to visit them.

As for De Baudricourt, his mind was made up.  There was something about this girl which was past his understanding.  Just at present it was not possible to send her to the King, for the rains, sometimes mingled with blinding snow storms, were almost incessant, the country lay partially under water, and though such a journey might be possible to a seasoned soldier, he declared it would be rank murder to send a young girl, who, perchance, had never mounted a horse before, all that great distance.  She must needs wait till the waters had somewhat subsided, and till the cold had abated, and the days were somewhat longer.

The Maid heard these words with grave regret, and even disapproval.