And when I have finished my prayer, straightway I hear a voice saying unto me: 'Daughter of God, go, I will be thy help.' And this voice fills me with so great a joy, that in this condition I would forever stay."[1146] [Footnote 1146: _Trial_, vol.iii, p.

12 (evidence of Dunois).] While she was repeating the words spoken by the Voice, Jeanne raised her eyes to heaven.

The nobles present were struck by the divine expression on the maiden's face.

But those eyes bathed in tears, that air of rapture, which filled my Lord the Bastard with amazement, was not an ecstasy, it was the imitation of an ecstasy.[1147] The scene was at once simple and artificial.

It reveals the kindness of the King, who was incapable of wounding the child in any way, and the light-heartedness with which the nobles of the court believed or pretended to believe in the most wonderful marvels.