challenged the
captain to meet him in single combat. The issue of the combat proved
right to be on the side of the French knight; for with the aid of
Madame Saint Catherine he was victorious. In return he came to
Fierbois to offer to his holy protectress the armour of the vanquished
Englishman, in the presence of my Lord, the Bastard of Orleans, of
Captain La Hire and several other nobles.[465]

[Footnote 465: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _passim_.]

Jeanne must have delighted to hear tell of such miracles, or others
like them, and to see so many weapons hanging from the chapel walls.
She must have been well pleased that the saint who visited her at all
hours and gave her counsel should so manifestly appear the friend of
poor soldiers and peasants cast into bonds, cages and pits, or hanged
on trees by the _Godons_.

She prayed in the chapel and heard two masses.[466]

[Footnote 466: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 75.]

CHAPTER V

THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS FROM THE 12TH OF OCTOBER, 1428, TILL THE 6TH OF
MARCH, 1429

Since the victory of Verneuil and the conquest of Maine, the English
had advanced but little in France and their actual possessions there
were becoming less and less secure.[467] If they spared the lands of
the Duke of Orleans it was not on account of any scruple. Albeit on
the banks of the Loire it was held dishonourable to seize the domains
of a noble when he was a prisoner,[468] everything is fair in war. The
Regent had not scrupled to seize the duchy of Alencon when its duke
was a prisoner.[469] The truth is that by bribes and entreaties the
good Duke Charles dissuaded the English from attacking his duchy. From
1424 until 1426 the citizens of Orleans purchased peace by money
payments.[470] The _Godons_, not being in a position to take the
field, were all the more ready to enter into such agreements. During
the minority of their half English and half French King, the Duke of
Gloucester, the brother and deputy of the Regent, and his uncle, the
Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of the Kingdom, were tearing out each
other's hair, and their disputes were the occasion of bloodshed in the
London streets.[471] Towards the end of the year 1425 the Regent
returned to England, where he spent seventeen months reconciling uncle
and nephew and restoring public peace. By dint of craft and vigour he
succeeded so far as to render his fellow countrymen desirous and
hopeful of completing the conquest of France.