JOAN OF ARC. 345 the heralds who brought her letters were only saved from a simi- lar fate by a determined threat of reprisals on the part of Dunois, then in command at Orleans.* Some ten days later the convoy started under command of Gilles de Kais and the Marechal de Sainte-Severe. Joan had promised that it should meet with no opposition, and faith in her was greatly enhanced when her words proved true. Although it passed within one or two bow-shots of the English siege-works, and though there was considerable delay in ferrying the cattle and provisions across the Loire into the city, not an attempt at interference was made. The same occurred with a second convoy which reached Orleans May 4, to the surprise of the French and the disgust of the Paris- ians, who watched the affair from a distance, and were unable to understand the paralysis which seemed to have fallen on the Eng- lish arms. Joan had impatiently awaited these last reinforce- ments, and urged immediate offensive measures against the be- siegers. Without consulting her, on the same day an assault was made on one of the English works on the other side of the Loire. Her legend relates that she started up from slumber exclaiming that her people were being slaughtered, and, scarcely waiting for her armor to be adjusted, sprang on her horse and galloped to the gate leading to the scene of action. The attack had miscarried, but after her arrival on the scene not an Englishman could wound a Frenchman, and the bastille was carried. Hot fighting occurred on the following days. On the 6th she was wounded in the foot by a caltrop, and on the 7th in the shoulder by an arrow, but in spite of desperate resistance all the English works on the farther bank of the Loire were taken, and their garrisons slain or captured. The English loss was estimated at from six thousand to eight thousand men, while that of the French was not over one hun- dred. On the 8th the English abandoned the siege, marching off in such haste that they left behind them their sick and wounded, their artillery and magazines. The French, flushed with victory, were eager to attack them, but Joan forbade it — " Let them go ;
- Monstrelet, II. 57. — Proces, p. 478. — Thomassin, p. 538. — Chronique, pp.
430-33. Joan's letters, when produced on her trial, were falsified — at least according to her statement. — Le Brun de Charmettes, Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, III. 348.
