d
multitude only awaited a sign from her to throw itself in tumult on
the bastions and perish there. Notwithstanding the visions of war
that haunted her, that sign she did not give. Child as she was, and
as ignorant of war as of life, there was that within her which turned
away disaster. She led this crowd of men, not to the English bastions,
but to the holy places of the city. Down the streets she rode,
accompanied by many knights and squires; men and women pressed to see
her and could not gaze upon her enough. They marvelled at the manner
of her riding and of her behaviour, in every point like a man-at-arms;
and they would have hailed her as a veritable Saint George had they
not suspected Saint George of turning Englishman.[983]

[Footnote 983: _Journal du siege_, p. 80. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du
siege_, pp. 92, 95.]

That Sunday, for the second time, she went forth to offer peace to the
enemies of the kingdom. She passed out by the Renard Gate and went
along the Blois Road, through the suburbs that had been burnt down,
towards the English bastion. Surrounded by a double moat, it was
planted on a slope at the crossroads called La Croix Boissee or
Buissee, because the townsfolk of Orleans had erected a cross there,
which every Palm Sunday they dressed with a branch of box blessed by
the priest. Doubtless she intended to reach this bastion, and perhaps
to go on to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils situated between La
Croix Boissee and the Loire, where, as she had said, were Talbot and
the English. For she had not yet given up hope of gaining a hearing
from the leaders of the siege. But at the foot of the hill, at a place
called La Croix-Morin, she met some _Godons_ who were keeping watch.
And there, in tones grave, pious, and noble, she summoned them to
retreat before the hosts of the Lord. "Surrender, and your lives shall
be spared. In God's name go back to England. If ye will not I will
make you suffer for it."[984]

[Footnote 984: 1 May. _Journal du siege_, p. 80.]

These men-at-arms answered her with insults as those of Les Tourelles
had done. One of them, the Bastard of Granville, cried out to her:
"Would you have us surrender to a woman?"

The French, who were with her, they dubbed pimps and infidels, to
shame them for being in the company of a bad woman and a witch.[985]
But whether because they thought her magic rendered her invulnerable,
or because they held it dishonourable to strike a messenger,