Jeanne was all the more impatient to set forth because she had herself announced the time of her arrival in France, and that time was drawing near. 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. However so he did.[381] [Footnote 378: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 428, 434. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clxxx. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, p. xxiii.] [Footnote 379: _Les caquets de l'accouchee_, new edition by E. Fournier and Le Roux de Lincy, Paris, 1855, in 16mo, introduction.] [Footnote 380: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53; vol. ii, p. 443.] [Footnote 381: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 428, 430, 434.] Leaving the home of her childhood, which she was never to see again, Jeanne, in company with Durand Lassois, passed down her native valley in its winter bareness. As she went by the house of the husbandman Gerard Guillemette of Greux, whose children and Jacques d'Arc's were great friends, she cried: "Good-bye! I am going to Vaucouleurs."[382] [Footnote 382: _Ibid._, p. 416.] A few paces further she saw her friend Mengette: "Good-bye, Mengette," she said. "God bless thee."[383] [Footnote 383: _Ibid._, p. 431.] And by the way, on the doorsteps of the houses, whenever she saw faces she knew, she bade them farewell.[384] But she avoided Hauviette with whom she had played and slept in childhood and whom she dearly loved. If she were to bid her good-bye she feared that her heart would fail her. It was not till later that Hauviette heard of her friend's departure and then she wept bitterly.[385] [Footnote 384: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 418.] [Footnote 385: _Ibid._, p. 419: _dixit quod nescivit recessum dictae Johannae; quae testis propter hoc multum flebat, quia eam multum propter suam bonitatem diligebat et quod sua socia erat_.]