throw on his cloak."

And thus it came to pass. For the men-at-arms shut up in the town
besought the King to open the gates forthwith or they would break them
down. The gates were opened and all the fighting men hastened to the
Maid, heedless of the King, who threw on his cloak and followed them.

On that day a great number of the English were slain.[1575]

[Footnote 1575: Eberhard Windecke, p. 103.]

Such is the story which gives a very inaccurate representation of what
happened at Orleans on the 6th of May. The citizens hastened in crowds
to the Burgundian Gate, resolved to cross the Loire and attack Les
Tourelles. Finding the gate closed, they threw themselves furiously on
the Sire de Gaucourt who was keeping it. The aged baron had the gate
opened wide and said to them, "Come, I will be your captain."[1576] In
the story the citizens have become men-at-arms, and it is not the Sire
de Gaucourt but the King who maliciously closes the gates. But the
King gained nothing by it; and it is astonishing to find that so early
there had grown up in the minds of the people the idea that, far from
aiding the Maid to drive out the English, the King had put obstacles
in her way and was always the last to follow her.

[Footnote 1576: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 117.]

Seen through this chaos of stories more indistinct than the clouds in
a stormy sky, Jeanne appeared a wondrous marvel. She prophesied and
many of her prophecies had already been fulfilled. She had foretold
the deliverance of Orleans and Orleans had been delivered. She had
prophesied that she would be wounded, and an arrow had pierced her
above the right breast. She had prophesied that she would take the
King to Reims, and the King had been crowned in that city. Other
prophecies had she uttered touching the realm of France, to wit, the
deliverance of the Duke of Orleans, the entering into Paris, the
driving of the English from the holy kingdom, and their fulfilment was
expected.[1577]

[Footnote 1577: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 55, 84 _et seq._, 133, 174, 232,
251, 252, 254, 331; vol. iii, pp. 99, 205, 254, 257, _passim_.
_Journal du siege_, pp. 34, 44, 45, 48. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp.
212, 295. Perceval de Cagny, p. 141. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 320.
Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 143. The Clerk of the Chamber of
Accounts of Brabant, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426. _Chronique de
Tournai_ (vol. iii, _du recueil des chroniques de Flandre_), p. 411.
Morosini, vol.