he English round Orleans. After the
experience of the Battle of the Herrings such a meeting was to be
feared. If the road along the left bank were taken, the march would
lie through the district of La Sologne, which still belonged to King
Charles; and if the river were left well on one side, the army would
be out of sight of the English garrisons of Beaugency and of Meung.
True, it would involve crossing the Loire, but by going up the river
five miles east of the besieged city a crossing could conveniently be
effected between Orleans and Jargeau. On due deliberation it was
decided that they should go by the left bank through La Sologne. It
was decided to take in the victuals in two separate lots for fear the
unloading near the enemy's bastions should take too long.[915] On
Wednesday, the 27th of April, they started.[916] The priests in
procession, with a banner at their head, led the march, singing the
_Veni creator Spiritus_.[917] The Maid rode with them in white armour,
bearing her standard. The men-at-arms and the archers followed,
escorting six hundred wagons of victuals and ammunition and four
hundred head of cattle.[918] The long line of lances, wagons, and
herds defiled over the Blois bridge into the vast plain beyond. The
first day the army covered twenty miles of rutty road. Then at
curfew, when the setting sun, reflected in the Loire, made the river
look like a sheet of copper between lines of dark reeds, it
halted,[919] and the priests sang _Gabriel angelus_.

[Footnote 913: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 104 (Brother Pasquerel's
evidence). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Morosini, vol. iii, pp.
110, 111; vol. iv, pp. 313-315. G. Martin, _L'etendard de Jeanne
d'Arc_, in _Notes d'art et d'arch._, 1834, pp. 65-71, 81-88,
illustrated.]

[Footnote 914: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93. _Chronique du doyen de
Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 327.]

[Footnote 915: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 5, 67, 78, 105, 212. Martial
d'Auvergne, _ibid._, vol. v, p. 53. _Chronique de la fete_, _ibid._,
p. 290. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 71. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 38 _et seq._]

[Footnote 916: The 28th of April, according to Eberhard Windecke, p.
165. The 27th, if, as Pasquerel says, the army spent two nights on the
march.]

[Footnote 917: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 105.]

[Footnote 918: Eberhard Windecke, p. 167.]

[Footnote 919: _Trial_, vol. iii, p