But so valiantly did he defend himself that he arrived safe and sound at Joinville, bringing the cattle, which the Count of Vaudemont caused to be driven back to the pastures of Greux and Domremy.[252] [Footnote 251: A league is two and a half English miles (W.S.).] [Footnote 252: S.Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp.

275 _et seq._] Unexpected good fortune! With tears the husbandman welcomed his restored flocks and herds.

But was he not likely to lose them for ever on the morrow?
At that time Jeanne was thirteen or fourteen.

War everywhere around her, even in the children's play; the husband of one of her godmothers taken and ransomed by men-at-arms; the husband of her cousin-german Mengette killed by a mortar;[253] her native land overrun by marauders, burnt, pillaged, laid waste, all the cattle carried off; nights of terror, dreams of horror,--such were the surroundings of her childhood.
[Footnote 253: E.de Bouteiller and G.de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp.

4-15.].