_Gentle and otherwise_: nobles and villeins.

Here we must interpret the terms _comrades_ and _gentle_ according to their true meaning and not consider them as used ironically, as in the following passage from Froissart: "_Il (le duc de Lancastre) entendit comme il pourroit estre saisy de quatre gentils compaignons qui estrangle avoyent son oncle, le duc de Glocestre, au chasteau de Calais._" "He (the Duke of Lancaster) realised how he might be seized by the four gentle comrades who had strangled his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, in the Castle of Calais." (Froissart in La Curne.)] [Footnote 888: French.

_Attendez les nouvelles de la Pucelle_ and further on: _Si vous ne voules croire lez nouvelles de par Dieu de la Pucelle...._ This word _Nouvelles_ then as now meant _tidings_, but it also had a sense of _marvels_ as in the following phrase: "_En celle annee apparurent maintes nouvelles a Rosay en Brie; le vin fut mue en sang et le pain en chair sensiblement ou (au) sacrement de l'autel._" ("In that year many _marvels_ were wrought at Rosay in Brie; the wine was turned to blood and the bread to flesh visibly at the sacrament of the altar.") (_Chroniques de Saint Denys_, in La Curne.)] Such is the letter.

It was written in a new spirit; for it proclaimed the kingship of Jesus Christ and declared a holy war.

It is hard to tell whether it proceeded from Jeanne's own inspiration or was dictated to her by the council of ecclesiastics.