At the foot of the hill, towards the village, was a spring[186] on the margin of which gooseberry bushes intertwined their branches of greyish green. It was called the Gooseberry Spring or the Blackthorn Spring.[187] If, as was thought by a graduate of the University of Paris,[188] Jeanne described it as _La Fontaine-aux-Bonnes-Fees-Notre-Seigneur_, it must have been because the village people called it by that name. By making use of such a term it would seem as if those rustic souls were trying to Christianise the nymphs of the woods and waters, in whom certain teachers discerned the demons which the heathen once worshipped as goddesses.[189] It was quite true. Goddesses as much feared and venerated as the Parcae had come to be called Fates,[190] and to them had been attributed power over the destinies of men. But, fallen long since from their powerful and high estate, these village fairies had grown as simple as the people among whom they lived. They were invited to baptisms, and a place at table was laid for them in the room next the mother's. At these festivals they ate alone and came and went without any one's knowing; people avoided spying upon their movements for fear of displeasing them. It is the custom of divine personages to go and come in secret. They gave gifts to new-born infants. Some were very kind, but most of them, without being malicious, appeared irritable, capricious, jealous; and if they were offended even unintentionally, they cast evil spells. Sometimes they betrayed their feminine nature by unaccountable likes and dislikes. More than one found a lover in a knight or a churl; but generally such loves came to a bad end. And, when all is said, gentle or terrible, they remained the Fates, they were always the Destinies.[191] [Footnote 186: _Ibid._, index, under the words _Fontaine des Groseilliers_.] [Footnote 187: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 67-210; vol. ii. pp. 391 _et seq._] [Footnote 188: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, ed. Tuetey, p. 267.] [Footnote 189: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 209.] [Footnote 190: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 67, 187, 209; vol. ii, pp. 390, 404, 450.] [Footnote 191: Wolf, _Mythologie des fees et des elfes_, 1828, in 8vo. A. Maury, _Les fees au moyen age_, 1843, in 18mo, and _Croyances et legendes du moyen age_, Paris, 1896, in 8vo.] Near by, on the border of the wood, was an ancient beech, overhanging the highroad to Neufchateau and casting a grateful shade.[192] The beech was venerated almost as piously as had been those trees which were held sacred in the days before apostolic missionaries evangelised Gaul.[193] No hand dared touch its branches, which swept the ground. "Even the lilies are not more beautiful,"[194] said a rustic. Like the spring the tree had many names. It was called _l'Arbre-des-Dames_, _l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames_, _l'Arbre-des-Fees_, _l'Arbre-Charmine-Fee-de-Bourlemont_, _le Beau-Mai_.[195] [Footnote 192: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de Jeanne d'Arc_, ms. fr. 10,448, fols. 14, 15.]