390, 404, 450.] [Footnote 191: Wolf, _Mythologie des fees et des elfes_, 1828, in 8vo.
A.Maury, _Les fees au moyen age_, 1843, in 18mo, and _Croyances et legendes du moyen age_, Paris, 1896, in 8vo.] Near by, on the border of the wood, was an ancient beech, overhanging the highroad to Neufchateau and casting a grateful shade.[192] The beech was venerated almost as piously as had been those trees which were held sacred in the days before apostolic missionaries evangelised Gaul.[193] No hand dared touch its branches, which swept the ground.

"Even the lilies are not more beautiful,"[194] said a rustic.

Like the spring the tree had many names.

It was called _l'Arbre-des-Dames_, _l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames_, _l'Arbre-des-Fees_, _l'Arbre-Charmine-Fee-de-Bourlemont_, _le Beau-Mai_.[195] [Footnote 192: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de Jeanne d'Arc_, ms.

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