o renounce the sinful life, and to
ask forgiveness of Our Lady and the saints.[856] This remedy had been
adopted by the people of Orleans. They had had masses said in the
Church of Sainte-Croix for the souls of nobles, captains, and
men-at-arms killed in their service, and especially for those who had
died a piteous death in the Battle of the Herrings. They had offered
candles to Our Lady and to the patron saints of the town, and had
carried the shrine of Saint-Aignan round the walls.[857]

[Footnote 855: Charles d'Orleans, _Poesies_, edited by A.
Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, in 8vo, p. 176.]

[Footnote 856: Miniature in the MS. of the poems of Charles d'Orleans,
in the British Museum, Royal 16 F. ii, fol. 73 v'o.]

[Footnote 857: _Journal du siege_, p. 43. Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire
de la ville d'Orleans_, vol. ii, p. 43.]

Every time they felt themselves in great danger, they brought it forth
from the Church of Sainte-Croix, carried it in grand procession round
the town and over the ramparts,[858] then, having brought it back to
the cathedral, they listened to a sermon preached in the porch by a
good monk chosen by the magistrates.[859] They said prayers in public
and resolved to amend their lives. Wherefore they believed that in
Paradise Saint Euverte and Saint-Aignan, touched by their piety, must
be interceding for them with Our Lord; and they thought they could
hear the voices of the two pontiffs. Saint Euverte was saying,
"All-powerful Father, I pray and entreat thee to save the city of
Orleans. It is mine. I was its bishop. I am its patron saint. Deliver
it not up to its enemies."

[Footnote 858: _Chronique de la fete_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
297.]

[Footnote 859: Accounts of the Commune, _passim_, in _Journal du
siege_, pp. 210 _et seq._]

Then afterwards spoke Saint-Aignan: "Give peace to the people of
Orleans. Father, thou who by the mouth of a child didst appoint me
their shepherd, grant that they fall not into the hands of the enemy."

The inhabitants of Orleans expected that the Lord would not at once
answer the prayers of the two confessors. Knowing the sternness of his
judgments they feared lest he would reply: "For their sins are the
French people justly chastised. They suffer because of their
disobedience to Holy Church. From the least to the greatest in the
realm each vies with the other in evil-doing. The husbandmen,
citizens, lawyers and priests are hard and avaricious; the princes