Joan of Arc

rties, he plundered all the poor and weak, while he waged war and made alliances with the greater feudal lords, changing sides with bewildering rapidity. One day, when Joan was about thirteen years old, his men fell upon Domremy so suddenly that the people could not escape to the Castle of the Island. The robbers quickly gathered all the cattle of the village, stripped the houses of everything worth carrying off, and rode away with their booty. Apparently, they did not kill the peasants, or even burn their houses, but the livelihood of the village was gone. The herd was so large that the castle of Doulevant would not hold the cattle, but, as they were driven some fifty miles from Domremy, Henry of Orly feared no pursuit. In their distress the peaceful peasants called upon Joanna of Joinville, then the representative of the family of Bourlemont, to which Domremy belonged. The lady sent for help to her kinsman, Anthony, count of Vaude- mont, one of the most powerful lords in Lorraine. Vaude- mont's men retook the cattle without much difficulty; they beat off Orly, when he came riding after them, and drove the herd in safety back to Domremy.1 There was great joy in the village at its return. 1 Luce, Ixxxi. 275. Thus Domremy learned the meaning of war. The English were not directly responsible for the raid, as Orly seems to have been in the service of neither party, while the count of Vaudemont was distinctly on the Anglo-Burgundian side. Nevertheless, as has be...