asonably supposed, the French were to make their last stand for
maintaining the independence of their monarchy, and the rights of their
sovereign.

The earl of Salisbury at last approached the place with an army, which
consisted only of ten thousand men; and not being able, with so small
a force, to invest so great a city, that commanded a bridge over the
Loire, he stationed himself on the southern side towards Sologne,
leaving the other, towards the Beausse, still open to the enemy. He
there attacked the fortifications which guarded the entrance to the
bridge; and, after an obstinate resistance, he carried several of them;
but was himself killed by a cannon ball as he was taking a view of the
enemy.[*]

* Hall, fol. 105. Monstrelet, vol. ii. p. 39., Stowe, p.
369. Hoingshed, p. 599. Grafton, p. 531.

The earl of Suffolk succeeded to the command; and being reenforced with
great numbers of English and Burgundians, he passed the river with the
main body of his army, and invested Orleans on the other side. As it
was now the depth of winter, Suffolk, who found it difficult, in that
season, to throw up intrenchments all around, contented himself, for the
present, with erecting redoubts at different distances, where his men
were lodged in safety, and were ready to intercept the supplies which
the enemy might attempt to throw into the place. Though he had several
pieces of artillery in his camp, (and this is among the first sieges
in Europe where cannon were found to be of importance,) the art of
engineering was hitherto so imperfect, that Suffolk trusted more to
famine than to force for subduing the city; and he purposed in
the spring to render the circumvallation more complete, by drawing
intrenchments from one redoubt to another. Numberless feats of valor
were performed both by the besiegers and besieged during the winter:
bold sallies were made, and repulsed with equal boldness: convoys were
sometimes introduced, and often intercepted: the supplies were still
unequal to the consumption of the place: and the English seemed
daily, though slowly, to be advancing towards the completion of their
enterprise.

{1429.} But while Suffolk lay in this situation, the French parties
ravaged all the country around; and the besiegers, who were obliged to
draw their provisions from a distance were themselves exposed to the
danger of want and famine. Sir John Fastolffe was bringing up a large
convoy of even kind of stores, w