A young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the matter, and brought the news of it to the town.

XLVII

JEANNE D’ARC

FERRIER’S “Apparitions”

Upon her trial, as it is repeated by Chartier, she spoke with the utmost simplicity and firmness of her visions:  “Que souvent alloit a une belle fontaine au pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nommoit bonne fontaine aux Fees Nostre Seigneur, at en icelluy lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils avoient fiebvre ils alloient pour recouvrer garison; et la alloit souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine ombroit; et s’apparurent a elle Ste Katerine et Ste Marguerite qui lui dirent qu’elle allast a ung Cappitaine qu’elles lui nommerent, laquelle y alla sans prendre conge ni a pere ni a mere; lequel Cappitaine la vestit en guise d’homme et l’armoit et lui ceint l’epee, et luy bailla un escuyer et quatre varlets; et en ce point fut montee sur un bon cheval; et en ce point vint aut Roy de France, et lui dit que du Commandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et qu’elle le feroit le plus grand Seigneur du Monde, et qu’il fut ordonne que tretou ceulx qui lui desobeiroient fussent occis sans mercy, et que St Michel et plusieurs anges lui avoient baille une Couronne moult riche pour lui.”

XLVIII

ANNE WALKER

Local Records

In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world, and a widower.  A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but too good cause.  A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Clare, in Chester-le-Street, and promised to take care both of her and her future child.  One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Clare’s door, and told her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place where she could remain in safety till her confinement was over.  They would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire.  Fourteen days after, one Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on going downstairs to go home, in the middle of the ground floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head.  Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the spectre wanted.  “I,” said the apparition, “am the spirit of Anne Walker”; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particulars which I have already related to you.  “When I was sent away with