may the French trumpets blew the charge again and they beheld
the Maid with her white standard directly beneath their walls. And they
considered that her return to the fight was nothing less than magical
and fear gripped their hearts. Then the French swarmed up the scaling
ladders like monkeys, leaped over the ramparts, and a horrible din
arose from the interior of the fort, where, amid oaths and outcries and
the clangor and crash of axes and meeting shields, the English were
savagely slaughtered.

Glasdale, the same leader who had threatened Jeanne from the English
camp, was guarding the retreat of his men as they ran across a bridge
over the Loire, but the French brought up and set fire to an old barge
piled high with straw, tar, sulphur and all kinds of inflammable
material, and the only escape for the English lay directly through the
flames.

Jeanne, on seeing this, was smitten with great pity for her enemies.

"Yield, Glasdale, yield!" she cried. "Thou hast called me witch, thou
hast basely insulted me, but I have great pity on your soul."

But the brave English captain refused to give in and continued to guard
the escape of his comrades. When all had passed through the smoke and
flame he tried himself to rush across--but the planks were now eaten
through with fire and would not hold him. With a crash of breaking
timbers he plunged into the river beneath, where the weight of his
armor pulled him down and he was drowned.

With the capture of this English stronghold the siege of Orleans came
to an end. The English saw that they were beaten and that their months
of fighting to gain the city had availed them nothing. On the following
day the French beheld them marching away in good order, and Jeanne
cried out for joy.

"Let them go," she said to her captains who wished to pursue them. "It
is Sunday and God does not will that you shall fight to-day, but you
shall have them another time." And the French held a solemn mass in
thanksgiving for their victory.

Jeanne had made good her word and Orleans was saved. And now the Maid
returned to Tours to meet the Dauphin, who had been so faint hearted
that he stayed out of harm's way while a girl had gone forth and fought
his battles for him. But he was very glad to see the Maid and he gave
her a royal welcome and Jeanne told him that no time was to be lost but
that he must come to Rheims and be crowned.

At last the tardy prince yielded to her request, and Jeanne with