Possibly she may have appeared before the judge at Toul, not once but two or three times. And there was a great chance of her having to journey day and night with her so-called betrothed, for he was passing over the same road at the same time. Her Voices bade her fear nothing. Before the judge she swore to speak the truth, and denied having made any promise of marriage. She had done nothing wrong. But an evil interpretation was set upon conduct which proceeded alone from an innocence both singular and heroic. At Neufchateau it was said that on those journeys she had consumed all her substance. But what was her substance? Alas! she had set out with nothing. She may have been driven to beg her bread from door to door. Saints receive alms as they give them: for the love of God. There was a story that her betrothed seeing her living during the trial in company with bad women, had abandoned his demand for justice, renouncing a bride of such bad repute.[371] Such calumnies were only too readily believed. [Footnote 371: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 215. Article 9 of the deed of accusation is drawn up as the result of an inquiry made at Neufchateau.] After a fortnight's sojourn at Neufchateau, Jacques d'Arc and his family returned to Domremy. The orchard, the house, the monastery, the village, the fields,--in what a state of desolation did they behold them! The soldiers had plundered, ravaged, burnt everything. Unable to exact ransom from the villeins who had taken flight, the men-at-arms had destroyed all their goods. The monastery once as proud as a fortress, with its watchman's tower, was now nothing but a heap of blackened ruins. And now on holy days the folk of Domremy must needs go to hear mass in the church of Greux.[372] [Footnote 372: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 396, _passim_.] So full of danger were the times that the villagers were ordered to keep in fortified houses and castles.[373] [Footnote 373: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clxxx, 230.] Meanwhile the English were laying siege to the town of Orleans, which belonged to their prisoner Duke Charles. By so doing they acted badly, for, having possession of his body, they ought to have respected his property.[374] They built fortified towers round the city of Orleans, the very heart of France; and it was said that they had entrenched themselves there in great strength.[375] Now Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret loved the Land of the Lilies; they were the sworn friends and gentle cousins of the Dauphin Charles. They talked to the shepherd maid of the misfortunes of the kingdom and continued to say: "Leave thy village and go into France."[376] [Footnote 374: _Mistere du siege_, v, 497.] [Footnote 375: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, chs. xxxiv, xxxv. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, chs. xxxii, xxxv; _Journal du siege_, pp. 2 _et seq._] [Footnote 376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 216.]