THE ANGEL OF THE LORD
down into her lap to be fed. The etymological blunder
of the scholars and the gossip of the village were to
give the Oak Wood a strange prominence in Joan's
fortunes.
The household and the fields provided the occupations
of those first sixteen years, the changing seasons their
milestones, the jumbled mixture of Christian and Pagan
belief their principal intellectual nourishment, but from
the outside world there drifted in other, and profound,
influences as well. Through Domremy ran the Langres-
Verdun highroad, connecting the two portions of Philip
the Good's domain, and over it passed in one direction
the great brightly painted carts, drawn by a dozen horses,
bringing the huge wine casks from Burgundy into Flanders,
and in the other the gorgeous textiles from the looms of
Ghent and Bruges, the exotic wares distributed through
the port of Antwerp, that helped make Dijon the most
brilliant capital of the age. Along that road passed also
begging friars and vagabond soldiers, glad to exchange
news and a story for a night's lodging. To them Joan
often gave up her bed and herself slept in the chimney
corner, later speeding them on their way with alms when
she had anything to give. From those vagrants she would
have had the tales of the saints and martyrs through whom
God had revealed Himself to men, and of the kings and
knights who loved justice and did mercy (all of them,
alas, dead). In the listening girl was lighted an under-
standing of that fine, high thing called chivalry which
for her became one of the two supreme realities, the
other being the nearness of God.
From these wanderers she learned too of the historical
and sentimental meaning of the word France', "le doulx
royaume," once blessed in all good things, including
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