Then came the really vital part of the matter.  She proceeded—­no direct question on the point being recorded, though no doubt it was made—­to tell how when she was about thirteen she heard voices from God bidding her to be good and obedient.  The first time she was much afraid.  The voice came about the hour of noon, in summer, in her father’s garden.  She was fasting but had not fasted the preceding day.  The voice came from the right, towards the church; and came rarely without a great light.  This light came always from the side whence the voice proceeded, and was a very bright radiance.  When she came into France she still continued to hear the same voices.

She was then asked how she could see the light when it was at the side; to which foolish question Jeanne gave no reply, but “turned to other matters,” saying voluntarily with a soft implied reproof of the noise around her—­that if she were in a wood, that is in a quiet place, she could hear the voices coming towards her.  She added (going on, one could imagine, in a musing, forgetting the congregation of sinners about her) that it seemed to her a noble voice, and that she believed it came from God, and that when she had heard it three times she knew it was the voice of an angel; the voice always came quite clearly to her, and she understood it well.

She was then asked what it said to her concerning the salvation of her soul.

She said that it taught her to rule her life well, to go often to church:  and told her that it was necessary that she, Jeanne, should go to France.  The said Jeanne added that she would not be questioned further concerning the voice, or the manner in which it was made known to her, but that two or three times in a week it had said to her that she must go to France; but that her father knew nothing of this.  The voice said to her that she should go to France, until she could endure it no longer; it said to her that she should raise the siege, which was set against the city of Orleans.  It said also that she must go to Robert of Baudricourt, in the city of Vaucouleurs, who was captain of that place, and that he would give her people to go with her; to which she had answered that she was a poor girl who knew not how to ride, nor how to conduct war.  She then said that she went to her uncle and told him that she wished to go with him for a little while to his house, and that she lived there for eight days; she then told her uncle that she must go to Vaucouleurs, and the said uncle took her there.  Also she went on to say that when she came to the said city of Vaucouleurs, she recognised Robert of Baudricourt; though she had never seen him before she knew him by the voice that said to her which was he.  She then told this Robert that it was necessary that she should go to France, but twice over he refused and repulsed her; the third time, however, he received her, and gave her certain men to go with her; the voice had told her that this would be so.