il was relieved from a serious embarrassment. Whereupon the
common folk were assembled in the various quarters of the city, and
from the citizens thus consulted was obtained the following crafty
declaration: "It is our intention to live and die with the Council and
the Notables. According to their advice we shall act in concord and in
peace, without murmuring or making answer, unless it be by the counsel
and decree of the Commander of Reims and his Lieutenant."[1485]

[Footnote 1485: _Ibid._, p. 292. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_,
pp. 17 _et seq._]

The Sire de Chastillon, Commander of the town, was then at
Chateau-Thierry with his lieutenants, Jean Cauchon and Thomas de
Bazoches, both of them knights. The citizens of Reims deemed it wise
that he should see King Charles's letter. Their Bailie, Guillaume
Hodierne, went to the Lord Captain and showed it to him. Most
faithfully did the Bailie express the sentiments of the people of
Reims: he asked the Sire de Chastillon to come to their deliverance,
but he asked in such a manner that he did not come. That was the
all-important point; for by not appealing to him they laid themselves
open to a charge of treason, while if he did come they risked having
to endure a siege grievous and dangerous.

With this object the Bailie declared that the citizens of Reims,
desirous to communicate with their captains, were willing to receive
him if he were accompanied by no more than fifty horse. Herein they
displayed their good will, being entitled to refuse to receive a
garrison within their walls; this privilege notwithstanding, they
consented to admit fifty horse, which meant about two hundred fighting
men. As the citizens had foreseen, the Sire de Chastillon judged such
a number insufficient for his safety. He demanded as the conditions of
his coming, that the town should be victualled and put in a state of
defence, that he should enter it with three or four hundred
combatants, that the defence of the city as well as of the castle
should be entrusted to him, and that there should be delivered up to
him five or six notables as hostages. On these conditions he declared
himself ready to live and die for them.[1486]

[Footnote 1486: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 292, 293. Varin,
_Archives de Reims_, pp. 910, 912. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_,
p. 18.]

He marched with his company to within a short distance of the town,
and then made known to the townsfolk that he had com