ecessary must be taken to those who
had stayed behind at Le Portereau. There was a constant passing to and
fro of boats across the river. Men, women and children were carrying
supplies to the outposts.[1055]

[Footnote 1055: _Journal du siege_, p. 84.]

On the morrow, Saturday the 7th of May, Jeanne heard Brother Pasquerel
say mass and piously received the holy sacrament.[1056] Jacques
Boucher's house was beset with magistrates and notable citizens. After
a night of fatigue and anxiety, they had just heard tidings which
exasperated them. They had heard tell that the captains wanted to
defer the storming of Les Tourelles. With loud cries they appealed to
the Maid to help the townsfolk, sold, abandoned, and betrayed.[1057]
The truth was that my Lord the Bastard and the captains, having
observed during the night a great movement among the English on the
upper Loire, were confirmed in their fears that Talbot would attack
the walls near the Renard Gate while the French were occupied on the
left bank. At sunrise they had perceived that during the night the
English had demolished their outwork Saint Prive, south of
l'Ile-Charlemagne.[1058] That also caused them to believe firmly that
in the evening the English had concentrated in the Saint-Laurent camp
and the bastion, London. The townsfolk had long been irritated by the
delay of the King's men in raising the siege. And there is no doubt
that the captains were not so eager to bring it to an end as they
were.[1059] The captains lived by war, while the citizens died of
it,--that made all the difference. The magistrates besought the Maid
to complete without delay the deliverance she had already begun. They
said to her: "We have taken counsel and we entreat you to accomplish
the mission you have received from God and likewise from the King."

[Footnote 1056: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 109. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 295.]

[Footnote 1057: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292. _Trial_, vol. iii,
p. 215. _Journal du siege_, pp. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1058: _Chronique de la fete_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 293.]

[Footnote 1059: "_Par l'accord et consentement des bourgeois d'Orleans
mais contre l'opinion et volonte de tous les chefs et capitaines_,"
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292.]

"In God's name, I will," she said. And straightway she mounted her
horse, and uttering a very ancient phrase, she cried: "Let who loves
me follow me!"[1060]

[Footnote 1060: _Chronique de l'etablissemen