thought the citizens would wait
for the assault. It was answered yes, considering their number even if
they had nothing before them but a hedge."[28] He took this as a joke
and said, "To-morrow you will not find a person." He thought that
there would be a simple repetition of his experience at Dinant and
Liege, and that the garrison would simply succumb in terror. When the
Burgundians rushed at the walls their reception showed not only that
every point had a defender, but also that those same defenders were
provided with huge stones, pots of boiling water, burning torches--all
most unpleasant things when thrown in the faces of men trying to scale
a wall. Three hours were sufficient to prove to the assailants the
difficulty of the task. Twelve hundred were slain and maimed, and the
strength of the place was proven.

Charles was not inclined to relinquish his scheme, but the weather
came to the aid of the besieged. Heavy rains forced the troops to
change camp. More men were lost in skirmishes and mimic assaults,
losses that Charles could ill afford at the moment. Finally at the end
of three fruitless weeks, the siege was raised and the Burgundians
marched on to try to redeem their reputation in Normandy. Had Beauvais
fallen, it would have been possible to relieve the Duke of Brittany,
against whom Louis had marched with all his forces and whom he had
enveloped as in a net. This reverse was the first serious rebuff that
had happened to Charles, and it marked a turn in his fortunes.

Louis fully appreciated the enormous advantage to himself, and was not
stinting in his reward to the plucky little town. Privileges and a
reduction of taxes were bestowed on Beauvais. An annual procession
was inaugurated in which women were to have precedence as a special
recognition of their services with boiling water and other irregular
weapons, while a special gift was bestowed on one particular girl,
Jeanne Laisne, who had wrested a Burgundian standard from a soldier
just as he was about to plant it on the wall. Not only was she endowed
from the royal purse, but she and her husband and their descendants
were declared tax free for ever.[29]

_Charles to the Duke of Brittany_

"My good brother, I recommend myself to you with good heart. I
rather hoped to be able to march through Rouen, but the whole
strength of the foe was on the frontier, where was the _grand
master, of whose loyalty I have not the least doubt_, so that