316 _et seq._] The first of these lines is a chronogram, that is, it contains a date.
To decipher it you take the numeral letters of the line and add them together; the total gives the date.
bIs seX CVCVLLI, bIs septeM se soCIabVnt.
1 + 10 + 100 + 5 + 100 + 5 + 50 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 1000 + 100 + 1 + 5 = 1429.
Had any one sought these lines in the works of the Venerable Bede they would not have found them, because they are not there; but no one thought of looking for them any more than they thought of looking for the Foret Chenue in Merlin.[697] And it was understood that both Bede and Merlin had foretold the coming of the Maid.

In those days prophecies, chronograms, and charms flew like pigeons from the banks of the Loire and spread abroad throughout the realm.

Not later than the May or June of this year the pseudo Bede will reach Burgundy.
Earlier still he will be heard of in Paris.

The aged Christine de Pisan, living in retirement in a French abbey, before the last day of July, 1429, will write that Bede and Merlin had beheld the Maid in a vision.[698] [Footnote 697: _The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede_, ed.

Giles, London, 1843-1844, 12 vols., in 8vo, in _Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae_.] [Footnote 698: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol.v, p.