Jargeau nor Beaugency would have been
taken in June. Quite in the beginning of July, when they thought the
Loire campaign was to be continued, they had sent their great mortar,
La Bougue, to Gien. With it they had despatched ammunition and
victuals; and now, in the early days of December, at the request of
the King addressed to the magistrates, they sent to La Charite all the
artillery brought back from Gien; likewise eighty-nine soldiers of the
municipal troops, wearing the cloak with the Duke of Orleans' colours,
the white cross on the breast; with their trumpeter at their head and
commanded by Captain Boiau; craftsmen of all conditions, master-masons
and journeymen, carpenters, smiths; the cannoneers Fauveau, Gervaise
Lefevre and Brother Jacques, monk of the Gray friars monastery, at
Orleans.[1872] What became of all this artillery and of these brave
folk?

[Footnote 1872: A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, p. 107, proofs
and illustrations, xvii, pp. 159, 168. _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 268, 270,
according to the original documents in the Orleans Library.]

On the 24th of November, the Sire d'Albret and the Maid, being hard
put to it before the walls of La Charite, likewise solicited the town
of Bourges. On receipt of their letter, the burgesses decided to
contribute thirteen hundred golden crowns. To raise this sum they had
recourse to a measure by no means unusual; it had been employed
notably by the townsfolk of Orleans when, some time previously, to
furnish forth Jeanne with munition of war, they had bought from a
certain citizen a quantity of salt which they had put up to auction
in the city barn. The townsfolk of Bourges sold by auction the annual
revenue of a thirteenth part of the wine sold retail in the town. But
the money thus raised never reached its destination.[1873]

[Footnote 1873: La Thaumassiere, _Histoire du Berry_, p. 161. _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 356, 357. Lanery d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en
Berry_, pp. 105 _et seq._ A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, pp.
111, 112.]

A right goodly knighthood was gathered beneath the walls of La
Charite; besides Louis de Bourbon and the Sire d'Albret, there was the
Marechal de Broussac, Jean de Bouray, Seneschal of Toulouse, and
Raymon de Montremur, a Baron of Dauphine, who was slain there.[1874] It
was bitterly cold and the besiegers succeeded in nothing. At the end
of a month Perrinet Gressart, who was full of craft, caused them to
fall into an ambus