|WHEN Joan’s army was gathered, with plenty of good things, and powder
and shot, in waggons, for the people of Orleans, she gave orders that
no loose people should follow them. The soldiers must not drink and
play dice and cards. They must pray, and must never swear. One of the
generals, the brave La Hire, asked that he might be allowed one little
oath, so she said he might swear “by his baton,” the short staff which
he carried as a leader. Then Joan mounted, and rode at the head of the
amy out of the gate of Blois. The French Commander at Orleans, Danois,
had sent to say that they must march up the bank of the Loire opposite
to that on which Orleans stands, for the English were very strong, with
many fortifications, on the road on the Orleans side, and would stop
them. Dunois seems to have thought that Joan’s army should go above
the town, and be ferried across with the supplies for the city-for the
English held the bridge--but that they could not cut their way through
the main body cf the English army on the other side of the river. But to
go straight through the English where they were strongest was what Joan
had intended. Therefore she was angry when she arrived at the place
where Dunois was waiting for her, and saw that the river lay between her
and the town of Orleans. You may think that her Voices should have told
her that she was marching on the wrong bank of the river: however, they
did not. She asked Dunois why he had ordered them to come by the road
they took. She said, “I bring you better help than has ever come to any
town or captain, the help of the King of heaven.”
Dunois himself has left this account of what Joan said, and, as she was
speaking, the wind changed. It had been blowing in such a way as to make
it hard for the boats to carry Joan and the provisions across the river,
but now it went about, and they crossed easily, some way above the town.
As for the army, Joan ordered them back to Blois, to cross by the bridge
there, and march to Orleans again, past the forts and through the midst
of the English.
Once across the river, Joan mounted again, with her banner of Our Lord
and the Lilies in her hand, and with Dunois at her side, and rode to the
town. They passed an English fortress, the Church of St Loup, in safety,
and the people came out to meet them. Night had fallen, and the people
who crowded round the Maid were carrying torches. Ore of these set fire
to the fringe of her banner and made her horse plunge; but she crushed
out the flame with her left hand in its steel glove, and reined in her
horse easily, while the people cheered, and the women wished to kiss her
hand, which she did not like, thinking the honour too great. It was a
beautiful sight to see the Maid ride into Orleans town. From that hour
there was no more fear among the French.
[Illustration: 0055]
Dunois said, “till that day, two hundred English could scatter eight
hundred or a thousand cf our men, but now they skulked in their forts
and dared not come out against us.” This is an extraordinary thing, for
Talbot, who led the English, was the bravest of men, and was thought the
greatest captain living. Jeanne sent to him a letter to bid him break up
his camp and go away. The English laughed, and one day, when Joan went
out to speak to them, they called her ill names, so that she wept for
shame. But, somehow, the English had certainly lost heart, or they had
some reason which we do not know, for merely defending their strong
fortresses.
On the day after Joan entered Orleans she wanted Dunois to sally out of
the town with his men and assail the English. He did not think it wise
to do so and Joan went up to her own room. Suddenly she rushed down and
asked her page why he had not told her that the French were fighting,
she did not know where. It was at the fort and Church of St. Loup, which
Joan had passed on her way into Orleans. On this side, namely, farther
up the river, above the town, the English were weakest, as they did not
expect to be attacked on that side. The French were victorious:
when they saw Joan ride up they were filled with courage. Joan saw a
Frenchman strike down an English prisoner: she dismounted; laid the poor
prisoner’s head in her lap, and did her best to comfort him.