On one occasion at Lagny she was asked to resuscitate a dead child.  One of the greatest of the French nobles wrote to ask her which of the rival Popes was the true one.  When asked on the eve of a battle who would be victor, she answered that she could no more tell than any of the soldiers could.  A woman named Catherine de la Rochelle, who assumed the power of knowing where money was hidden, was commanded by the King to take Joan of Arc into her confidence.  The latter soon discovered that Catherine was a fraud, and refused to have anything to do with her.  Catherine had suggested going to the Duke of Burgundy to arrange a peace between him and the French King, to which proposition Joan of Arc very sensibly said that it seemed to her that no peace could be made between them but at the lance’s point.  Joan had seen too much of the duplicity of the Duke to believe in any of his treaties and promises.

The early months of the year 1430 were months of anxiety for the citizens of Orleans and the other towns which had thrown off the English allegiance.  The truce made between Burgundy and France expired at Christmas of the former year, but was renewed till Easter.  Early in the year, the burghers of Rheims implored help of Joan of Arc, and not of the King, thus proving how far greater trust was placed in the hands of the Maid of Orleans, by such a town as Rheims, than in the goodwill of the King.

Twice during the month of March did Joan have letters written to reassure them of aid in case of need.  ‘Know,’ she says in a letter dated the 16th of March, ’that if I can prevent it you will not be assailed; and if I cannot come to your rescue, close your gates, and I will make them [the English] buckle on their spurs in such a hurry that they will not be able to use them.’

In the second letter to the people of Rheims, written at Sully on the 28th of March, Joan tells them that they will soon hear some good news about herself.  This good news referred no doubt to her return to the field, for we find that by the end of that month she was again on the march.

It was early in the month of April, 1430, that Joan of Arc left the Court and rode to the north, on what was to prove her last expedition.  It is said that while at Melun, during Easter week, she was told by her voices that she would be taken prisoner before St. John’s Day.

It was at Lagny that an incident occurred which formed one of the accusations brought against the Maid by her judges, and to which reference may now be made.  A freebooter, named Franquet d’Arras, had, at the head of a band of about three hundred English freelances, held all the country-side in terror round about Lagny.  Hearing of this, being in the neighbourhood of Lagny, Joan of Arc gave orders that Franquet and his band should be attacked.  The French were in number about equal to the English.  After a stubborn fight, the English were all killed or captured.  Among the latter was the chief of the robbers, Franquet