At the small basilica built to her memory on the place where her
old beech-tree, "Fair May," used to stand, there was an ancient
caretaker who explained to Pierre the pictures from the life of
the Maid with which the walls are decorated. They are stiff and
conventional, but the old man found them wonderful and told with
zest the story of _La Pucelle_--how she saw her first vision;
how she recognized the Dauphin in his palace at Chinon; how she
broke the siege of Orleans; how she saw Charles crowned in the
cathedral at Rheims; how she was burned at the stake in Rouen. But
they could not kill her soul. She saved France.
In the village church there was a priest from the border of Alsace,
also a pilgrim like Pierre, but one who knew the shrine better.
He showed the difference between the new and the old parts of the
building. Certain things the Maid herself had seen and touched.
"Here is the old holy-water basin, an antique, broken column hollowed
out on top. Here her fingers must have rested often. Before this
ancient statue of St.
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