As for the sword,--the noblest part of her accoutrement and the bright symbol of strength joined to loyalty,--Jeanne refused to take that from the royal armourer; she was resolved to receive it from the hand of Saint Catherine herself.
[Footnote 818: Anonymous poem in the _Trial_, vol.v, p.

38 and note.] [Footnote 819: Capitaine Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc ecuyere_, pp.

146 _et seq._] We know that on her coming into France she had stopped at Fierbois and heard three masses in Saint Catherine's chapel.[820] Therein the Virgin of Alexandria had many swords, without counting the one Charles Martel was said to have given her, and which it would not have been easy to find again.

A good Touranian in Touraine, Saint Catherine was an Armagnac ever on the side of those who fought for the Dauphin Charles.

When captains and soldiers of fortune stood in danger of death, or were prisoners in the hands of their enemies, she was the saint they most willingly invoked; for they knew she wished them well.