rte and Saint-Aignan, should
quit his episcopal see and desert his afflicted spouse.[562] When the
rats go the vessel is on the point of sinking. Only the Lord Bastard
and the Marshal de Boussac were left in the city. And even the Marshal
was not to stay long. A month later he went, saying that the King had
need of him and that he must go and take possession of broad lands
fallen to him through his wife, by the death of his brother-in-law,
the Lord of Chateaubrun, at the Battle of the Herrings.[563] The
townsfolk deemed the reason a good one. He promised to return before
long, and they were content. Now the Marshal de Boussac was one of the
barons who had the welfare of the kingdom most at heart.[564] But he
who has lands must needs do his duty by them.

[Footnote 561: 18 Feb. _Journal du siege_, pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 562: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Footnote 563: 16 March. _Ibid._, p. 59.]

[Footnote 564: Thaumas de la Thaumassiere, _Histoire du Berry_,
Bourges, 1689, in fol., pp. 648-656.]

Believing that they were betrayed and abandoned, the citizens
bethought them of securing their own safety. Since the King was not
able to protect them, they resolved that in order to escape from the
English, they would give themselves to one more powerful than he.
Therefore, to Lord Philip, Duke of Burgundy, they despatched Captain
Poton of Saintrailles, who was known to him because he had been his
prisoner, and two magistrates of the city, Jean de Saint-Avy and Guion
du Fosse. Their mission was to pray and entreat the Duke to look
favourably on the town, and for the sake of his good kinsman, their
Lord, Charles, Duke of Orleans, a prisoner in England, and thus
prevented from defending his own domain, to induce the English to
raise the siege until such time as the troubles of the realm should be
set at rest.[565] Thus they were offering to place their town as a
pledge in the hands of the Duke of Burgundy. Such an offer was in
accordance with the secret desire of the Duke, who, having sent a few
hundred Burgundian horse to the walls of Orleans, was helping the
English, and did not intend to do it for nothing.[566]

[Footnote 565: _Journal du siege_, p. 52.]

[Footnote 566: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 317. _Journal du siege_, p. 52.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 269. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
p. 65. Morosini, pp. 16, 17, vol. iv, supplement xiv. Du Tillet,
_Recueil des traites_, p. 221.]

Pending the uncertain and distant da