There was one to whom she could whisper something. That was little Hauviette. Hauviette had always listened, always wanted to be with her since those days when a very small Hauviette had followed them about and tried to share in their games.
When Hauviette came to the cottage to spin with her, she chatted merrily all the time and did not notice Jeannette’s silence. When it grew dark the young girl asked if she might stay the night as she used to. She had told her parents she would and even though she had not far to go to her home it was advisable for her not to be out after dark in case some marauding bear showed his face.
The two girls lay on Jeannette’s narrow pallet and Jeannette tried to explain how angels and saints had come to her and told her she was chosen for a great task.
Hauviette listened rather drowsily, and after a while she began to murmur something unintelligible. Jeannette realised then that she was half asleep and that she had thought Jeannette was telling her a story about a saint who had the same name as herself. Hauviette did not really believe that Jeannette, whom she had known all her life, could really be like Saint Margaret or Saint Catherine.
She would tell no one. No one would believe her in any case.
A few days later a visitor came to Domrémy. This was a member of the family for whom Jeannette had always had a special friendship. Durand Laxart was some sixteen years older than she was and had married her cousin Jeanne le Vauseul. Jeanne was the daughter of Zabillet’s sister Aveline, and Durand had known Jeannette since she was a baby. He had been attracted by her because even then she had seemed apart from the other children. He used to carry her on his shoulders and walk through the fields with her, cut whistles for her out of wood and tell her the names of the birds and the trees.
Durand sat round the fire and talked of what was happening in Petit-Burey where he lived with his wife and her parents. They had suffered in the same way as Domrémy and like those of that village were haunted by the shadow of war. Durand was not so very frequent a visitor because Petit-Burey was five miles from Domrémy and although that was not so very far it did mean travelling ten miles if the visit was to be made in one day only.
He told them that Zabillet’s sister Aveline was pregnant and that was a piece of news for them to discuss endlessly. When Zabillet was alone with Durand she told him that she was a little concerned about Jeannette.
‘Her father is worried about her too,’ said Zabillet. ‘She is not like other girls of her age.’
‘She never was,’ said Durand.
‘She spends so much time in the church in prayer. I believe she is there when she should be tending the flocks or tilling the ground. She neglects her work … It is not that she is lazy … and there is a strange look about her.’
Durand thought he would try to find out and when he saw Jeannette going into the church he followed her and there he found her kneeling before the statue of the Virgin. He stood waiting for her and when she came out he noticed the look of exultation on her face.
‘Jeannette,’ he said. ‘What has happened to you?’
She looked at him and said simply: ‘God has spoken to me through the Archangel Michael and His saints.’
‘Tell me about it,’ said Durand.
So she told him and he listened intently. He was the first who had taken her seriously.
‘I am chosen,’ she said. ‘I have been told.’
He was thoughtful as they went back. Suddenly, as though on impulse, she said to him: ‘Durand, you would help me, would you not?’
‘If it were possible, with all my heart,’ he assured her.
When they returned to the house it was to hear that there was a message from Colin. Catherine had become very ill and wished to see them all.
They left at once for Greux and there lying on her pallet, so pale and small that she seemed almost to have wasted away, lay Catherine.
There was little they could do but mourn. Poor Colin had lost all his gaiety. He was just a bewildered boy. He stood staring at the figure on the bed as though trying to convince himself that this was the girl with whom he had danced round L’Arbre des Dames and whom he had married in the church of Saint Rémy not so long ago.
Jeannette was stricken. She forgot everything but that she had lost a beloved sister. She even forgot her voices.
She could not stay in the stricken house but wandered out into the patch of garden which was close by and as she did so the voices came to her.
The Archangel Michael appeared to her and the two saints were with him. They were looking at her with compassion and she knew that she must not grieve for earthly losses, for this day Catherine would be with her Father in heaven.
‘Daughter of France,’ said a voice, ‘you must leave your village and make your way into France. Take your standard from the hands of the King of Heaven. Carry it with courage and God will help you.’
She was trembling. The voices were telling her she must act, and she did not know how to.
Then the Archangel Michael spoke to her.
‘You shall lead the Dauphin into Rheims and there he shall be crowned,’ he told her.
She covered her face with her hands for a few moments. Her heart was filled with sudden terror. This was something beyond her imaginings. She could preserve her virginity; she could die for her faith; but how could she, a country girl, go to the Dauphin?
‘You must go to Captain Baudricourt in Vaucouleurs and in time – though not at first – he will give you guides to take you to the Dauphin.’
The brightness had gone; the voices faded away and she was alone.
Had she heard aright? Go to the Dauphin? Go to Captain Baudricourt? She had heard his name and she knew that he was in charge of the garrison at Vaucouleurs. But how could she go to him?
It was a sad day when they buried Catherine. Jeannette walked with her brothers and her parents behind the coffin when they carried it into the church.
Durand Laxart was with them. He could not stop looking at Jeannette.
She looks so frail and ill, he thought. She will be the next.
When Catherine was buried Jeannette went into the fields and listened for the voices. They came again and repeated that she had been chosen by Heaven to stop the senseless war, to drive the English out of France and crown the true King at Rheims. Her first task was to go to Captain de Baudricourt and though he would not listen to her at first, she must persevere and she would succeed in the end.
How? How? Jeannette asked.
She must be good, was the answer, and it would come to pass.
When she returned to the house Durand was with her parents and her mother said to her: ‘Durand thinks you should go and stay with him and Jeanne for a while. He thinks the change would do you good. Your Aunt Aveline will be feeling her condition. She is no longer young and child-bearing can be a strain at her age. It will be good to have an extra pair of hands to help in the house.’
Durand was looking at her intently. ‘What say you, Jeannette?’ he asked.
A great exultation came over her. She thought, Heaven has put this chance in my way.
So when Durand Laxart left Domrémy, Jeannette went with him, riding on the back of his mare, and while they journeyed across the five miles which separated Domrémy from Petit-Burey, Jeannette told him of her gratitude to him for his kindness in taking her away.
She would have to broach the subject of his taking her to Captain de Baudricourt very cautiously. Although he was sympathetic he would not perhaps go as far as that. She realised that to go to this worldly captain and tell him that she had heard voices commanding her to take the Dauphin to Rheims and there have him crowned would most certainly arouse his ridicule.