133.] As Merlin had foretold the works of Jeanne, so Bede must also have predicted them, for Bede and Merlin were always together in matters of prophecy.
The Monk of Wearmouth, the Venerable Bede, who had been dead six centuries, had been a veritable mine of knowledge in his lifetime.

He had written on theology and chronology; he had discoursed of night and day, of weeks and months, of the signs of the zodiac, of epacts, of the lunar cycle, and of the movable feasts of the Church.

In his book _De temporum ratione_ he had treated of the seventh and eighth ages of the world, which were to follow the age in which he lived.

He had prophesied.

During the siege of Orleans, churchmen were circulating these obscure lines attributed to him, and foretelling the coming of the Maid: _Bis sex cuculli, bis septem se sociabunt,[696] Gallorum pulli Tauro nova bella parabunt Ecce beant bella, tunc fert vexilla Puella._ [Footnote 696: Adopting the emendation made by M.Germain Lefevre-Pontalis in his _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, vol.iii, pp.
126, 127; vol.iv, pp.