all, perhaps eight thousand combatants, many of whom were
armed with pikes, axes, cross-bows and leaden mallets.[1186] The young
Duke of Alencon was placed in command. He was not remarkable for his
intelligence.[1187] But he knew how to ride, and in those days that
was the only knowledge indispensable to a general. Again the people of
Orleans defrayed the cost of the expedition. For the payment of the
fighting men they contributed three thousand livres, for their
feeding, seven hogsheads of corn. At their own request, the King
imposed on them a new _taille_ of three thousand livres.[1188] At
their own expense they despatched workmen of all trades,--masons,
carpenters, smiths. They lent their artillery. They sent culverins,
cannons, La Bergere, and the large mortar to which four horses were
harnessed, with the gunners Megret and Jean Boilleve.[1189] They
furnished ammunition, engines, arrows, ladders, pickaxes, spades,
mattocks; and all were marked, for they were a methodical folk.
Everything for the siege was sent to the Maid. For in this undertaking
she was the one commander they recognised, not the Duke of Alencon,
not even the Bastard their own lord's noble brother. For the
inhabitants of Orleans, Jeanne was the leader of the siege; and to
Jeanne, before the besieged town, they despatched two of their
citizens,--Jean Leclerc and Francois Joachim.[1190] After the citizens
of Orleans, the Sire de Rais contributed most to the expenses of the
siege of Jargeau.[1191] This unfortunate noble spent thoughtlessly
right and left, while rich burgesses made great profits by lending to
him at a high rate of interest. The sorry state of his affairs was
shortly to bring him to attempt their readjustment by vowing his soul
to the devil.

[Footnote 1185: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 94; vol. iv, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1186: _Mistere du siege_, line 15,761. _Journal du siege_,
p. 95. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 299. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 81. Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 338.]

[Footnote 1187: See _ante_, p. 211. A. Duveau, _Le jugement du duc
d'Alencon_, in _Bull. soc. archeol. du Vendomois_ (1874), vol. xiii,
pp. 132 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1188: Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses faites par Charles VII
pour secourir Orleans_, p. 158.]

[Footnote 1189: _Journal du siege_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1190: Taken from the Book of Accounts, in _Trial_, vol. v,
pp. 262, 263. A. de Villaret, _Campagnes de Jeanne d'Arc sur la
Loire_, pp. 77-