But in spite of these high words there was an undercurrent of fear in the
defiance. The English as well as the French believed that the latter had
supernatural aid, though the English held that the Witch of the Armagnacs
was emissary of evil rather than of good.
In the afternoon La Hire and Florent d'Illiers, two of the captains who
had entered the city with Jeanne, with a force of men-at-arms and some
citizens sallied forth from the city and attacked an English outpost
between their fortress of Paris and the city wall, and drove the men into
the main work. They thought to have burned this, but before they could do
so the English rallied and drove them back without much firing.
Jeanne was not present at this fray, but in the evening she rode forth,
the townspeople crowding about her, and placing herself on the town end
of the broken bridge--called out to the enemy, addressing them
courteously, summoning them once more to withdraw while there was time.
Sweetly and clearly her voice rang across the water, so that the English
who were in the fortress called Les Tourelles on the other side of the
bridge could not fail to hear her. Sir William Glasdale,--whom the French
called Classidas,--the knight in charge, came out on the bridge and
answered by hurling a volume of abuse upon her. Jeanne was not prepared
for the foul epithets that he called her, and for a brief time could not
speak, so overwhelmed was she. Then drawing her mystic sword she waved it
above her head, crying:
"Dost thou so speak, Classidas? Thou who art to die in so short a time
without stroke of sword!"
But Glasdale and his captains, who by this time had hurried to the walls
to catch sight of the witch, retorted with such vile words that Jeanne
could not restrain her tears, and wept bitterly. And so weeping she
returned to the city.
There being no sign of the return of the army Dunois, fearing that
without the presence of the Maid the favorite and the Royal Council might
so work upon the captains that they would fail to bring the army back,
determined to go to Blois and bring it himself. On Sunday, therefore,
with Jeanne's squire D'Aulon, he set forth. The Maid, with La Hire and
other captains, accompanied him to cover the departure, taking a position
at the special point of danger between the expedition and the enemy. But
in the towers not a man budged, not a shot was fired. So Dunois went on
his way unmolested, while Jeanne returned to the town. The citizens had
watched for her coming, and now walked by the side of her charger to the
cathedral, where every progress ended. The press to see her was at all
times great, and Jacques Boucher's door was almost broken in by the
eagerness of the people. She could hardly move through the crowded
streets when she went abroad, and it seemed that "they could not have
enough of the sight of her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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