e and
the men-at-arms believe in her.

During the ten days he spent at Tours the King kept Jeanne with him.
Meanwhile the Council were deliberating as to their line of
action.[1136] The royal treasury was empty. Charles could raise enough
money to make gifts to the gentlemen of his household, but he had
great difficulty in defraying the expenses of war.[1137] Pay was owing
to the people of Orleans. They had received little and spent much.
Their resources were exhausted and they demanded payment. In May and
in June the King distributed among the captains, who had defended the
town, sums amounting to forty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-one
livres.[1138] He had gained his victory cheaply. The total cost of
the defence of Orleans was one hundred and ten thousand livres. The
townsfolk did the rest; they gave even their little silver
spoons.[1139]

[Footnote 1136: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 12, 72, 76, 80. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 298. _Journal du siege_, p. 93. _Chronique de la
fete_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 299. Letter written by the agents of a
German town, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 349. _Chronique de Tournai_
(_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, p. 412). Eberhard
Windecke, p. 177. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
215.]

[Footnote 1137: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, pp. 634 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1138: Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, pp. 147 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1139: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 256 _et seq._, and taken from the
Commune and Fortress Accounts in _Journal du siege_. A. de Villaret,
_loc. cit._ p. 61. Couret, _Un fragment inedit des anciens registres
de la Prevote d'Orleans_.]

It would doubtless have been expedient to attempt to destroy that
formidable army of Sir John Fastolf which had lately terrified the
good folk of Orleans. But no one knew where to find it. It had
disappeared somewhere between Orleans and Paris. It would have been
necessary to go forth to seek it; that was impossible, and no one
thought of doing such a thing. So scientific a manoeuvre was never
dreamed of in the warfare of those days. An expedition to Normandy was
suggested; and the idea was so natural that the King was already
imagined to be at Rouen.[1140] Finally it was decided to attempt the
capture of the chateaux the English held on the Loire, both below and
above Orleans, Jargeau, Meung, Beaugency.[1141] A useful undertaking
and one which presented no very great difficulties, unles