During one of these sieges, there was a drought inside the wall, and they were forced to brave the enemy and get their water from one of the many springs out upon the hillside. Thinking it better to save the fighting men for sterner duty, it was decided to let the clerks and those who wrote in the books go for the supply. There was one _petit clerc_, noted for the beauty of his singing in church, who was beloved of a girl of high birth. These two met but seldom, as their affair was not approved by the young woman’s family. One night the clerk’s name was on the list of those who must go outside the gates. His sweetheart found it out and, stealing the message before it was delivered to him, she put on boy’s clothing and took his place. That night the English lay in wait and killed a dozen or more water carriers, throwing the bodies into the spring. This was supposed to have stopped the flow of the water, and to-day the inhabitants will show the sink in the side of a hill which used to be this spring. I have always wanted to dig down and see if a girl’s skeleton were there. Standing on this wall, I could not help being hypnotized by the surroundings into a feeling that it was not the nineteenth, but the fifteenth or sixteenth century. I could see, with my mind’s eye, coming up the valleys toward the walled town, a long line of men and laden beasts, a troop of soldiery returning to their nest with the spoils, the loot raped from the countryside; for as neither printing nor powder had come to their aid, the countryfolk were robbed of everything they had but their shift and their pickax. Led, perchance, by Sieur Johan or my lord high bishop, they bore upon their saddlebows beautiful maidens with streaming hair, their heads drooping and their hands tied behind their backs. At the end of one of the streets of Montreuil, quite a distance down, there is a church which seems to be covered with lichens, but on nearer approach they are seen to be bullet holes—mute testimonials to the sufferings the people have endured during the ages—for example, the result of the French Commune.