Between la Beauce and la Sologne, at the entrance to the loyal provinces Touraine, Blesois, and Berry, the ducal city confronted the enemy, lying on a bend of the Loire, just as the arrow's point is lodged on the taut bow.[479] Bishopric, university, market of the country far and wide, on its belfries, towers, and steeples it raised proudly towards heaven the cross of Our Lord, the three _coeurs de lis_ of the city and the three _fleurs de lis_ of the dukes. Beneath the high slate roofs of its houses of stone or wood, built along winding streets or dark alleys, Orleans sheltered fifteen thousand souls. There were to be found officers of justice and of the treasury, goldsmiths, druggists, grocers, tanners, butchers, fishmongers, rich citizens as delicate as amber, who loved fine clothes, fine houses, music and dancing; priests, canons, wardens, and fellows of the university; booksellers, scriveners, illuminators, painters, scholars who were not all founts of learning, but who played prettily on the flute; monks of every habit, Black-friars, Grey-friars, Mathurins, Carmelites, Augustinians, and artisans and labourers to boot, smiths, coopers, carpenters, boatmen, fishermen.[480] [Footnote 479: Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p. 29.] [Footnote 480: Astesan in _Paris et ses historiens_, by Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, pp. 528 _et seq._ Le Maire, _Antiquites_, ch. xix, pp. 75 _et seq._ P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siege d'Orleans_, in 18mo, pp. 22, 24. E. Fournier, _Le Conteur orleanais_, p. 111. C. Cuissard, _Etude sur la musique dans l'Orleanais_, Orleans, 1886, p. 50. Jodocius Sincere, _Itirerarium Galliae_, Amstelodami, 1655, pp. 24, 25. Paul Charpentier et Cuissard, _Histoire du siege d'Orleans, memoire inedite de M. l'Abbe Dubois_, Orleans, 1894, in 8vo, p. 129. De Buzonniere, _Histoire architecturale de la ville d'Orleans_, 1849 (2 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, p. 76.] Of Roman origin, the form of the town was still the same as in the days of the Emperor Aurelian. The southern side along the Loire and the northern side extended to some three thousand feet. The eastern and western boundaries were only one hundred and fifty feet long. The city was surrounded by walls six feet thick and from eighteen to thirty-three feet high above the moat. These walls were flanked by thirty-four towers, pierced with five gates and two posterns.[481] The following is the description of the situation of these gates, posterns, and towers, with the names of those which became famous during the siege. [Footnote 481: Jollois, _Histoire du siege d'Orleans_, Paris, 1833, in 4to, with plans. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 183 _et seq._]