by a thin arm of the river and by
a narrow channel from l'Ile Charlemagne and l'Ile-aux-Boeufs, with
their green grass and underwood facing Combleux on the La Beauce bank.
A boat dropping down the river would next come to the two islands
Saint-Loup, and, doubling La Tour Neuve, would glide between the two
Martinet Islets on the right and l'Ile-aux-Toiles on the left. Thence
it would pass under the bridge which overspanned, as we have seen, an
island called above bridge Motte-Saint-Antoine and below,
Motte-des-Poissonniers. At length, below the ramparts, opposite
Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, it would come to two islets Biche-d'Orge
and another, the name of which is unknown, possibly it was
nameless.[483]

[Footnote 483: For some unknown reason modern historians have named
the little island to the right of Saint-Laurent l'Ile Charlemagne,
which causes it to be confused with the Ile Charlemagne lying to the
East of l'Ile-aux-Boeufs. On the accompanying plan we indicate the
little island just below Biche-d'Orge by the name of Petite Ile
Charlemagne. Jollois, _Histoire du siege_, engraving 1. Abbe Dubois,
_Histoire du siege_, pp. 193, 199. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere
expedition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 16. Manuscript of M. A. Cagnieul,
librarian at Orleans.]

The suburbs of Orleans were the finest in the kingdom. On the south
the fishermen's suburb of Le Portereau, with its Augustinian church
and monastery, extended along the river at the foot of the vineyards
of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, which produced the best wine in the
country.[484] Above, on the gentle slopes ascending to the bleak
plateau of Sologne, the Loiret, with its torrential springs, its
limpid waters, its shady banks, the gardens and the brooks of Olivet,
smiled beneath a mild and showery sky.

[Footnote 484: Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire de l'eglise et diocese
d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1647, vol. i, preface. Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p.
36.]

The _faubourg_ of the Burgundian gate stretching eastwards was the
best built and the most populous. There were the wonderful churches of
Saint-Michel and of Saint-Aignan. The cloister of the latter was held
to be marvellous.[485] Leaving this suburb and passing by the
vineyards along the sandy branch of the Loire extending between the
bank of the river and l'Ile-aux-Boeufs about a quarter of a league
further on, one comes to the steep slope of Saint-Loup; and, advancing
still further towards the east, the belfries of Saint-Jean-