[Footnote 193: For tree worship, see an article by M. Henry Carnoy in _La tradition_, 15 March, 1889.] [Footnote 194: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 422.] [Footnote 195: _Ibid._, index, under the words _Arbre des Fees_.] Every one at Domremy knew that fairies existed and that they had been seen under _l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames_. In the old days, when Berthe was spinning, a lord of Bourlemont, called Pierre Granier,[196] became a fairy's knight, and kept his tryst with her at eve under the beech-tree. A romance told of their loves. One of Jeanne's godmothers, who was a scholar at Neufchateau, had heard this story, which closely resembled that tale of Melusina so well known in Lorraine.[197] But a doubt remained as to whether fairies still frequented the beech-tree. Some believed they did, others thought they did not. Beatrix, another of Jeanne's godmothers, used to say: "I have heard tell that fairies came to the tree in the old days. But for their sins they come there no longer."[198] [Footnote 196: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 404.] [Footnote 197: _Ibid._, p. 404, _passim_. _Simple Crayon de la noblesse des ducs de Lorraine et de Bar_, in Le Brun des Charmettes' _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 266. Jules Baudot, _Les princesses Yolande et les ducs de Bar de la famille des Valois_, first part. _Melusine_, Paris, 1901, in 8vo, p. 121.] [Footnote 198: _Propter eorum peccata_, in the _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 396. There is no doubt as to the meaning of these words.] This simple-minded woman meant that the fairies were the enemies of God and that the priest had driven them away. Jean Morel, Jeanne's godfather, believed the same.[199] [Footnote 199: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 390.] [Illustration: THE HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMREMY IN 1419] Indeed on Ascension Eve, on Rogation days and Ember days, crosses were carried through the fields and the priest went to _l'Arbre-des-Fees_ and chanted the Gospel of St. John. He chanted it also at the Gooseberry Spring and at the other springs in the parish.[200] For the exorcising of evil spirits there was nothing like the Gospel of St. John.[201] [Footnote 200: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 397.] [Footnote 201: _Ibid._, p. 390. Bergier, _Dictionnaire de theologie_, under the word _Conjuration_.] My Lord Aubert d'Ourches held that there had been no fairies at Domremy for twenty or thirty years.[202] On the other hand there were those in the village who believed that Christians still held converse with them and that Thursday was the trysting day. [Footnote 202: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 187.] Yet another of Jeanne's godmothers, the wife of the mayor Aubrit, had with her own eyes seen fairies under the tree. She had told her goddaughter. And Aubrit's wife was known to be no witch or soothsayer but a good woman and a circumspect.[203] [Footnote 203: _Ibid._, pp. 67, 209.]