ove Paris,[1765] which looks as if they intended to attack the old
fortification and get into the city from the University side. Did they
mean to carry out the two attacks simultaneously? It is probable. Did
they renounce the project of their own accord or against their will?
We cannot tell.

[Footnote 1765: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 120, note 1. G. Lefevre-Pontalis,
_Un detail du siege de Paris, par Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliotheque de
l'Ecole des Chartes_, vol. xlvi, 1885, pp. 5 _et seq._]

Beneath the walls of Charles V they assembled a quantity of artillery,
cannons, culverins, mortars; and in hand-carts they brought fagots to
fill up the trenches, hurdles to bridge them over and seven hundred
ladders: very elaborate material for the siege, despite their having,
as we shall see, forgotten what was most necessary.[1766] They came not
therefore to skirmish nor to do great feats of arms. They came to
attempt in broad daylight the escalading and the storming of the
greatest, the most illustrious, and the most populous town of the
realm; an undertaking of vast importance, proposed doubtless and
decided in the royal council and with the knowledge of the King, who
can have been neither indifferent nor hostile to it.[1767] Charles of
Valois wanted to retake Paris. It remains to be seen whether for the
accomplishment of his desire he depended merely on men-at-arms and
ladders.

[Footnote 1766: Deliberation of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc. cit._
_Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245. Falconbridge, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 457.]

[Footnote 1767: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 240, 246, 298; vol. iii, pp. 425,
427; vol. v, pp. 97, 107, 130, 140.]

It would seem that the Maid had not been told of the resolutions
taken.[1768] She was never consulted and was seldom informed of what
had been decided. But she was as sure of entering the town that day as
of going to Paradise when she died. For more than three years her
Voices had been drumming the attack on Paris in her ears.[1769] But the
astonishing point is that, saint as she was, she should have consented
to arm and fight on the day of the Nativity. It was contrary to her
action on the 5th of May, Ascension Day, and inconsistent with what
she had said on the 8th of the same month: "As ye love and honour the
Sacred Sabbath do not begin the battle."[1770]

[Footnote 1768: _Ibid._, pp. 57, 146, 168, 250.]

[Footnote 176