ht coming on, and afraid
doubtless of the English of the Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils Camp,
resolved to lead the army back to Orleans. He had the retreat sounded.
The trumpet was already summoning the combatants to Le Portereau.[1079]
The Maid came to him and asked him to wait a little.

[Footnote 1079: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 216 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence),
p. 25; (evidence of J. Luillier). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 293.]

"In God's name!" she said, "you will enter very soon. Be not afraid
and the English shall have no more power over you."

According to some, she added: "Wherefore, rest a little; drink and
eat."[1080]

[Footnote 1080: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 25. _Journal du siege_, pp. 85,
86. Eberhard Windecke, p. 173.]

While they were refreshing themselves, she asked for her horse and
mounted it. Then, leaving her standard with a man of her company, she
went alone up the hill into the vineyards, which it had been
impossible to till this April, but where the tiny spring leaves were
beginning to open. There, in the calm of evening, among the vine props
tied together in sheaves and the lines of low vines drinking in the
early warmth of the earth, she began to pray and listened for her
heavenly voices.[1081] Too often tumult and noise prevented her from
hearing what her angel and her saints had to say to her. She could
only understand them well in solitude or when the bells were tinkling
in the distance, and evening sounds soft and rhythmic were ascending
from field and meadow.[1082]

[Footnote 1081: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 8 (evidence of Dunois). I
emphatically reject the facts alleged by Charles du Lys, concerning
Guy de Cailly, who is said to have accompanied Jeanne into the
vineyard and seen the angels coming down to her. Guy de Cailly's
patent of nobility is apocryphal. Charles du Lys, _Traite sommaire_,
pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 1082: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 62, 153, 480; vol. ii, pp.
420, 424.]

During her absence Sire d'Aulon, who could not give up the idea of
winning the day, devised one last expedient. He was the least of the
nobles in the army; but in the battles of those days every man was a
law unto himself. The Maid's standard was still waving in front of the
bulwark. The man who bore it was dropping with fatigue and had passed
it on to a soldier, surnamed the Basque, of the company of my Lord of
Villars.[1083] It occurred to Sire d'Aulon, as he looked upon this
standard blessed by priests and held t