one, to make off. Five hundred men are too few for defence, but
too many for surrender. As for enjoining the citizens of Reims to
demand succour for themselves and for us, that is merely to prove our
good-will to the Duke of Burgundy; and we risk nothing by it, for we
know that our trusty comrades of Reims will take care that when they
ask for succour they do not receive it, and that they will await a
favourable opportunity for opening their gates to King Charles, who
comes with a strong army. And now to conclude, we will resist to the
death if we are succoured, which God forbid!

Such were the crafty thoughts of those dwellers in Champagne. The
citizens fired a few stone bullets on to the French. The garrison
skirmished awhile and returned into the town.[1440]

[Footnote 1440: _Journal du siege_, p. 109. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 314, 315. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 91. Th. Boutiot,
_Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 497.]

Meanwhile King Charles' army was stricken with famine.[1441] The
Archbishop of Embrun's counsel to provide the army with victuals by
means of human wisdom was easier to give than to follow. There were
between six and seven thousand men in camp who had not broken bread
for a week. The men-at-arms were reduced to feeding on pounded ears of
corn still green and on the new beans they found in abundance. Then
they called to mind how during Saint Martin's Lent Friar Richard had
said to the folk of Troyes: "Sow beans broadcast: He who is to come
shall come shortly." What the good brother had said of the spiritual
seed-time was interpreted literally: by a curious misunderstanding,
what had been uttered concerning the coming of the Messiah was applied
to the coming of King Charles. Friar Richard was held to be the
prophet of the Armagnacs and the men-at-arms really believed that this
evangelical preacher had caused the beans they gathered to grow; thus
had he provided for their nourishment by his excellence, his wisdom
and his penetration into the counsels of God, who gave manna unto the
people of Israel in the desert.[1442]

[Footnote 1441: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 92.]

[Footnote 1442: _Journal du siege_, pp. 109, 110. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 315.]

The King, who had been lodging at Brinion since the 4th of July,
arrived before Troyes in the afternoon of Friday the 8th.[1443] That
very day he held council of war with the commanders and princes of the