If this prophecy had been traced back to its original source and read in the fourth book of the _Historia Britonum_, where it is to be found under the title of _Guyntonia Vaticinium_, it would have been seen to refer to the English city of Winchester, and it would have appeared that in the version then in circulation in France, the original meaning had been garbled, distorted, and completely metamorphosed. But no one thought of verifying the text. Books were rare and minds uncritical. This deliberately falsified prophecy was accepted as the pure word of Merlin and numerous copies of it were spread abroad. Whence came these copies? Their origin doubtless will remain a mystery for ever; but one point is certain: they referred to La Romee's daughter, to the damsel who, from her father's house, could see the edge of "Le Bois-Chenu." Thus they came from close at hand and were of recent circulation.[694] If this amended prophecy of Merlin be not the one that reached Jeanne in her village, forecasting that a Maid should come from the Lorraine Marches for the saving of the kingdom, then it was closely related to it. The two prognostications have a family likeness.[695] They were uttered in the same spirit and with the same intention; and they indicate that the ecclesiastics of the Meuse valley and those of the Loire had agreed to draw attention to the inspired damsel of Domremy. [Footnote 694: Morosini, vol. iv, p. 324.] [Footnote 695: Pierre Migiet weaves the two prophecies into one, which he says he has read in a book, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 133.] As Merlin had foretold the works of Jeanne, so Bede must also have predicted them, for Bede and Merlin were always together in matters of prophecy. The Monk of Wearmouth, the Venerable Bede, who had been dead six centuries, had been a veritable mine of knowledge in his lifetime. He had written on theology and chronology; he had discoursed of night and day, of weeks and months, of the signs of the zodiac, of epacts, of the lunar cycle, and of the movable feasts of the Church. In his book _De temporum ratione_ he had treated of the seventh and eighth ages of the world, which were to follow the age in which he lived. He had prophesied. During the siege of Orleans, churchmen were circulating these obscure lines attributed to him, and foretelling the coming of the Maid: _Bis sex cuculli, bis septem se sociabunt,[696] Gallorum pulli Tauro nova bella parabunt Ecce beant bella, tunc fert vexilla Puella._ [Footnote 696: Adopting the emendation made by M. Germain Lefevre-Pontalis in his _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, vol. iii, pp. 126, 127; vol. iv, pp. 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.