At that moment, the wind, being contrary, and thereby preventing the boats going up the river and reaching Orleans, turned all at once and became favourable. They stretched the sails; and I ordered the boats to the town, which I entered with Brother Nicolas de Geresme, then Grand Prior in France of the Order of Rhodes. We passed before the Church of Saint Loup in spite of the English. From that time I put good hope in her, even more than before. I had begged her to cross the river and to enter the town, where many were longing for her. She had made a difficulty about it, not wishing, she said, to abandon her army or her followers who were duly confessed, penitent, and of good will; and on their account she refused to come. Thereupon, I went in search of the captains who had charge of the convoy and the army, and besought them, for the welfare of the King, to allow Jeanne to enter Orleans at once, and that they should go up the river—they and the army—to Blois, where they should cross the Loire so as to return to Orleans, for there was no nearer place of crossing. They consented; and Jeanne then came with me. She had in her hand a banner, white in colour, on which was an image of Our Lord holding in His Hand a lily. La Hire crossed the Loire at the same time as she, and entered the city with her and ourselves. All this was much more the work of God than of man: the sudden change of wind immediately Jeanne had announced it; the bringing in of the convoy of supplies in spite of the English, who were in much greater force than all the King’s army; and the statement of Jeanne that she had seen Saint Louis and Saint Charles the Great praying God for the safety of the King and of the City. Another circumstance made me think these deeds were the work of God. I wished to go towards the army which had turned back on Blois and which was marching to the relief of Orleans; Jeanne would not wait for them nor consent that I should go to meet them: she wished to summon the English to raise the siege at once on pain of being themselves attacked. She did, in fact, summon them by a letter which she wrote to them in French, in which she told them, in very simple terms, that they were to retire from the siege and return to England, or else she would bring against them a great attack, which would force them to retreat. Her letter was sent to Lord Talbot. From that hour, the English—who, up to that time, could, I affirm, with two hundred of their men, have put to rout 800 or 1,000 of ours—were unable, with all their power, to resist 400 or 500 French; they had to be driven into their forts, where they took refuge, and from whence they dared not come forth.