irst to
their Blessed Patrons, Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, and after them
to Jeanne, the Divine Maid, believing that there was no easier,
simpler, or more natural explanation of the deeds they had
witnessed.[1550]

[Footnote 1550: _Journal du siege_, pp. 16, 88. _Chronique de
l'etablissement de la fete_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 296. Lottin,
_Recits historiques sur Orleans_, vol. i, p. 279.]

Guillaume Girault, former magistrate of the town and notary at the
Chatelet, wrote and signed, with his own hand, a brief account of the
deliverance of the city. Herein he states that on Wednesday, Ascension
Eve, the bastion of Saint-Loup was stormed and taken as if by miracle,
"there being present, and aiding in the fight, Jeanne the Maid, sent
of God;" and that, on the following Saturday, the siege laid by the
English to Les Tourelles at the end of the bridge was raised by the
most obvious miracle since the Passion. And Guillaume Girault
testifies that the Maid led the enterprise.[1551] When eye-witnesses,
participators in the deeds themselves, had no clear idea of events,
what could those more remote from the scene of action think of them?

[Footnote 1551: _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 282, 283.]

The tidings of the French victories flew with astonishing
rapidity.[1552] The brevity of authentic accounts was amply
supplemented by the eloquence of loquacious clerks and the popular
imagination. The Loire campaign and the coronation expedition were
scarcely known at first save by fabulous reports, and the people only
thought of them as supernatural events.

[Footnote 1552: Tidings of the Deliverance of Orleans sent from Bruges
to Venice the 10th of May (Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 23, 24).]

In the letters sent by royal secretaries to the towns of the realm and
the princes of Christendom, the name of Jeanne the Maid was associated
with all the deeds of prowess. Jeanne herself, by her monastic scribe,
made known to all the great deeds which, it was her firm belief, she
had accomplished.[1553]

[Footnote 1553: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 123, 139, 145, 147, 156, 159,
161.]

It was believed that everything had been done through her, that the
King had consulted her in all things, when in truth the King's
counsellors and the Captains rarely asked her advice, listened to it
but seldom, and brought her forth only at convenient seasons.
Everything was attributed to her alone. Her personality, associated
with deeds attested and seemingly marvellou