Even the banks of Loire, where the king loved to be, were not free from
the English. They held La Charite and Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier. Joan
wanted to return to Paris, but the council sent her to take La Charite
and Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier. This town she attacked first. Her squire,
a gentleman named d'Aulon, was with her, and described what he saw.
'When they had besieged the place for some time, an assault was
commanded, but, for the great strength of the forts and the numbers of
the enemy, the French were forced to give way. At that hour, I who speak
was wounded by an arrow in the heel, and could not stand or walk without
crutches. But I saw the Maid holding her ground with a handful of men,
and, fearing ill might come of it, I mounted a horse and rode to her,
asking what she was doing there alone, and why she did not retreat like
the others. She took the _salade_ from her head, and answered that she
was not alone, but had in her company fifty thousand of her people; and
that go she would not till she had taken that town.
'But, whatever she said, I saw that she had with her but four men or
five, as others also saw, wherefore I bade her retreat. Then she
commanded me to have faggots brought, and planks to bridge fosses. And,
as she spoke to me, she cried in a loud voice, "All of you, bring
faggots to fill the fosse." And this was done, whereat I greatly
marvelled, and instantly that town was taken by assault with no great
resistance. And all that the Maid did seemed to me rather deeds divine
than natural, and it was impossible that so young a maid should do such
deeds without the will and guidance of Our Lord.'
[Illustration: 'Go she would not till she had taken that town']
This was the last great feat of arms wrought by the Maid. As at Les
Tourelles she won by sheer dint of faith and courage, and so might she
have done at Paris, but for the king. At this town the soldiers wished
to steal the sacred things in the church, and the goods laid up there.
'But the Maid right manfully forbade and hindered them, nor ever would
she permit any to plunder.' So says Reginald Thierry, who was with her
at this siege. Once a Scottish man-at-arms let her know that her dinner
was made of a stolen calf, and she was very angry, wishing to strike
that Scot. He came from a land where 'lifting cattle' was thought rather
a creditable action.