There were folk not a few, and those not unlearned, who believed that as the result of these councils Our Lord had sent his Archangel to the shepherdess.

And it might even be possible that he would save the kingdom by the hand of a woman.

Is it not in the weak things of the world that he maketh his power manifest?
Did he not allow the child David to overthrow the giant Goliath, and did he not deliver into the hands of Judith the head of Holophernes?
In Orleans itself was it not by the mouth of a babe that he had caused to be named that shepherd who was to deliver the besieged town from Attila ?[861] [Footnote 861: Aug.

Theiner, _Saint Aignan ou le siege d'Orleans par Attila, notice historique suivie de la vie de ce saint, tiree des MSS.
de la Bibliotheque du Roi_, Paris, 1832, in 8vo.] The Lord of Villars and Messire Jamet du Tillay, having returned from Chinon, reported that they had with their own eyes seen the Maid; and they told of the marvels of her coming.

They related how she had travelled far, fording rivers, passing by many towns and villages held by the English, as well as through those French lands wherein were rife pillage and all manner of evils.