She had told the Commander of Vaucouleurs that succour should come to the Dauphin before mid Lent.

She did not want to make her Voices lie.[377] [Footnote 377: _Ibid._, vol.ii, p.

456.] Towards the middle of January occurred the opportunity she was looking for of returning to Burey.

At this time Durand Lassois' wife, Jeanne le Vauseul, was brought to bed.[378] It was the custom in the country for the young kinswomen and friends of the mother to attend and wait upon her and her babe.

A good and kindly custom, followed all the more readily because of the opportunity it gave of pleasant meetings and cheerful gossip.[379] Jeanne urged her uncle to ask her father that she might be sent to tend the sick woman, and Lassois consented: he was always ready to do what his niece asked him, and perhaps his complaisance was encouraged by pious persons of some importance.[380] But how this father, who shortly before had said that he would throw his daughter into the Meuse rather than that she should go off with men-at-arms, should have allowed her to go to the gates of the town, protected by a kinsman of whose weakness he was well aware, is hard to understand.