kneeling statue which the Princess Marie d'Orleans made of her. Here,
to the right, under the sloping roof, with its worm-eaten beams, she
slept and prayed and worked.

"See, here is the bread-board between two timbers where she cut the
bread for the _croute-au-pot_. From this small window she looked at
night and saw the sanctuary light burning in the church. Here, also, as
well as in the garden and in the woods, her heavenly voices spoke to
her and told her what she must do for the king and her country. She was
not afraid or ashamed, though she lived in so small a house. Here in
this very room she braided her hair and put on her red dress, and set
forth on foot for her visit to Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs. He
was a rough man and at first he received her roughly. But at last she
convinced him. He gave her a horse and arms and sent her to the king.
She saved France."

[Illustration]

At the rustic inn Pierre at thick slices of dark bread and drank a
stoup of thin red wine at noon. He sat at a bare table in the corner of
the room. Behind him, at a table covered with a white cloth, two
captains on furlough had already made their breakfast. They also were
pilgrims, drawn by the love of Jeanne d'Arc to Domremy. They talked of
nothing else but of her. Yet their points of view were absolutely
different.

One of them, the younger, was short and swarthy, a Savoyard, the son of
an Italian doctor at St. Jean de Maurienne. He was a skeptic; he
believed in Jeanne, but not in the legends about her.