At length however the impatience and despair were more than she could bear; the Court was then at Sully and the spring had begun with its longer days and more passable roads.  Without a word to anyone the Maid left the castle.  The war had rolled towards these princely walls, as near as Melun, which was threatened by the English.  A little band of intimate servants and associates, her two brothers, and a few faithful followers, were with her.  So far as we know she never saw Charles or his courtiers again.  They arrived at Melun in time to witness and to take part in the repulse of the English, and it was here that a communication was make to Jeanne by her saints of which afterwards there was frequent mention.  Little had been said of them during her dark time of inaction, and their tone was no longer as of old.  It was on the side of the moat of Melun where probably she was superintending some necessary work to strengthen the fortifications or to put them in better order for defence, that this message reached her.  The “Voices” which so often had urged her to victory and engaged the faith of heaven for her success, had now a word to say, secret and personal to herself.  It was that she should be taken prisoner; and the date was fixed, before the St. Jean.  It was the middle of April when this communication was made and the Feast of St. Jean, as everybody knows, is in the end of June; two months only to work in, to strike another blow for France.  The “Voices” bade her not to fear, that God would sustain her.  But it would be impossible not to be startled by such a sudden intimation in the midst of her reviving plans.  The Maid made one terrified prayer, that God would let her die when she was taken, not subject her to long imprisonment; her heart prophetically sprang to a sudden consciousness of the most likely, most terrible end that lay before her, for she had been often enough threatened with the stake and the fire to know what to expect.  But the saintly voices made no reply.  They bade her be strong and of good courage:  is not that the all-sustaining, all-delusive message for every martyr?  It was the will of God, and His support and sustaining power, which we often take to mean deliverance, but which is not always so—­were promised.  She asked where this terrible thing was to happen, but received no reply.  Natural and simple as she was, she confessed afterwards that had she known she was to be taken on any certain day, she would not have gone out to meet the catastrophe unless she had been forced by evident duty to do so.  But this was not revealed to her.  “Before the St. Jean!” It must almost have seemed a guarantee that until that time or near it she was safe.  She would seem to have said nothing immediately of this vision to sadden those about her.