now, as
on other occasions, they forbore to fire on her.

[Footnote 985: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 68 (evidence of Louis de
Coutes).]

That Sunday, Jacquet le Prestre, the town varlet, offered the Maid
wine.[986] The magistrates and citizens could not have more highly
honoured her whom they regarded as their captain. Thus they treated
barons, kings and queens when they were entertained in the city. In
those days wine was highly valued on account of its beneficent power.
Jeanne, when she emphasised a wish, would say: "If I were never to
drink wine between now and Easter!..."[987] But in reality she never
drank wine except mixed with water, and she ate little.[988]

[Footnote 986: Extracts from fortress accounts, in the _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 259.]

[Footnote 987: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 64.]

[Footnote 988: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 9, 15, 18, 22, 60; vol. v, p.
120. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285. Morosini, p. 101. _Relation du
greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 337.]

Throughout this time of waiting the Maid never rested for a moment. On
Monday, May 2nd, she mounted her horse and rode out into the country
to view the English bastions. The people followed her in crowds; they
had no fear and were glad to be near her. And when she had seen all
that she wanted, she returned to the city, to the cathedral church,
where she heard vespers.[989]

[Footnote 989: _Journal du siege_, p. 80. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du
siege_, p. 95.]

On the morrow, the 3rd of May, the day of the Invention of the Holy
Cross, which was the Cathedral Festival, she followed in the
procession, with the magistrates and the townsfolk. It was then that
Maitre Jean de Macon, the precentor of the cathedral,[990] greeted her
with these words: "My daughter, are you come to raise the siege?"

[Footnote 990: Charles Cuissard, _Notes chronologiques sur Jean de
Macon_, in _Memoires de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais_, vol.
xi, 1897, pp. 529, 545.]

She replied: "Yea, in God's name."[991]

[Footnote 991: _Chronique de la fete_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 291.
Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 30.]

The people of Orleans all believed that the English round the city
were as innumerable as the stars in the sky; the notary, Guillaume
Girault, expected nothing short of a miracle.[992] Jean Luillier,
woollen draper[993] by trade, thought it impossible for the citizens
to hold out longer against an enemy so enormously their superior.[994]
Messire Jean de Macon was li