King's men can hardly have
been able to make head against them, since the Maid and Sire d'Aulon
found them scattered through the fields. She gathered them together
and led them back to the attack. They were her friends: they had
journeyed together: they had sung psalms and hymns together: together
they had heard mass in the fields. They knew that she brought good
luck: they followed her. As she marched at their head her first idea
was a religious one. The bastion was built upon the church and convent
of the Ladies of Saint-Loup. With the sound of a trumpet she had it
proclaimed that nothing should be taken from the church.[1017] She
remembered how Salisbury had come to a bad end for having pillaged the
Church of Notre Dame de Clery; and she desired to keep her men from
an evil death.[1018] This was the first time she had seen fighting;
and no sooner had she entered into the battle than she became the
leader because she was the best. She did better than others, not
because she knew more; she knew less. But her heart was nobler. When
every man thought of himself, she alone thought of others: when every
man took heed to defend himself, she defended herself not at all,
having previously offered up her life. And thus this child,--who
feared suffering and death like every human being, who knew by her
Voices and her presentiments that she would be wounded,--went straight
on and stood beneath showers of arrows and cannon-balls on the edge of
the moat, her standard in hand, rallying her men.[1019] Through her
what had been merely a diversion became a serious attack. The bastion
was stormed.

[Footnote 1015: Gruel, _Chronique d'Arthur de Richemont_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1016: _Journal du siege_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 1017: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 124, 126. Abbe Dubois,
_Histoire du siege_, dissertation vi. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement
xiii. _Journal du siege_, pp. 83, 84. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol.
i, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1018: Robert Blondel, _De reductione Normanniae_, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 347. _Journal du siege_, p. 13. _Chronique de la fete_, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 286 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1019: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 109, 127. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 295. Clerk of the Chambre des Comptes de Brabant, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426. Eberhard Windecke, p. 172.]

When he heard that the fort of Saint-Loup was being attacked, Sir John
Talbot sallied forth from the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. In
order to reac