vernor, no lords, no generals; there was but one power and one
defence: the Maid.[967] The Maid was the people's captain. This
damsel, this shepherdess, this nun did the knights the greatest injury
they ever experienced: she reduced them to nothing. On the morning of
the 30th they must have been convinced that the popular revolution had
taken place. The town bands were waiting for the Maid to put herself
at their head, and with her to march immediately against the _Godons_.
The captains endeavoured to make them understand that they must wait
for the army from Blois and the company of Marshal de Boussac, who
that night had set out to meet the army. The citizens in arms would
listen to nothing, and with loud cries clamoured for the Maid. She did
not appear. My Lord the Bastard, who was honey-tongued, had advised
her to keep away.[968] This was the last advantage the leaders gained
over her. And now as before, when she appeared to give way to them,
she was merely doing as she liked. As for the citizens, with the Maid
or without her, they were determined to fight. The Bastard could not
hinder them. They sallied forth,[969] accompanied by the Gascons of
Captain La Hire and the men of Messire Florent d'Illiers. They bravely
attacked the bastion Saint-Pouair, which the English called Paris, and
which was about eight hundred yards from the walls. They overcame the
outposts and approached so close to the bastion that they were already
clamouring for faggots and straw to be brought from the town to set
fire to the palisades. But at the cry "Saint George!" the English
gathered themselves together, and after a sore and sanguinary fight
repulsed the attack of the citizens and free-lances.[970]

[Footnote 965: _Journal du siege_, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 966: _Ibid._, pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 967: See the evidence of S. Charles (vol. iii, pp. 116, 117)
and certain details in _La chronique de la Pucelle_.]

[Footnote 968: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 7, 211; vol. iv, pp. 221, 222.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 250, 251, 287. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 969: _Journal du siege_, pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 970: _Ibid._, p. 78. _Chronique de la fete_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 291, 292. Cf. Letter written from Germany, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 349.]

The Maid had known nothing of it. Sent from God, on her white horse, a
messenger armed yet peaceful, she held it neither just nor pious to
fight the English before t