changed, and the provision
boats, which, owing to the wind being contrary, had not been able to
make the islands, were now enabled to leave the city. They soon
arrived, were laden with provisions, corn, and even cattle embarked on
them, and, when thus provisioned, returned to Orleans by the canal on
the left bank of the Loire, and successfully arrived at the city end
of the broken bridge, whence the provisions and live stock were passed
into the town.

The river was too much in flood to allow of the army being taken
across, nor could a bridge of boats be made, owing to the height of
the waters. Joan, however, was determined to enter Orleans, flood or
no flood, for she knew what the moral effect of her appearing to the
townspeople would be. Accompanied by Dunois, La Hire, and some two
hundred lances, just after darkness had hidden her movements from the
enemy, she left Reuilly and entered the city.

Preceded by a great banner, the Maid of Orleans, as she may now be
called, with Dunois by her side, and followed by her knights and
men-at-arms, rode slowly through the streets, filled with a crowd
almost delirious in its joy at welcoming within its walls its
long-looked-for Deliverer. The people clung to her, kissing her knees
and feet, and, according to the old chroniclers, behaved as if God
Himself had appeared among them. So eager was the throng to approach
her, that in the press one of her standards was set on fire by a
flambeau. After returning thanks for the delivery of her countrymen in
the cathedral, Joan was made welcome at the house of the treasurer of
the imprisoned Duke of Orleans. This citizen's name was James Boucher;
and here she lodged, with her brothers, and the two faithful knights
who had accompanied her during her journey from Vaucouleurs to Chinon.

A vaulted room in this house is still shown, which purports to have
been that occupied by the Maid of Orleans. If it is the same building
it has been much modernised, although a beautiful specimen of the
domestic Gothic of the early part of the fifteenth century, known as
the house of Agnes Sorel, remains much in the condition that it must
have been in during the famous year of deliverance, 1429.

Although Orleans, by the action of Joan of Arc, had been succoured for
the time, the enemy was still at its gates, and Joan's mission was but
half accomplished. The aspect of affairs since the 29th of April was,
however, greatly changed in favour of the French,