[Footnote 483: For some unknown reason modern historians have named the little island to the right of Saint-Laurent l'Ile Charlemagne, which causes it to be confused with the Ile Charlemagne lying to the East of l'Ile-aux-Boeufs. On the accompanying plan we indicate the little island just below Biche-d'Orge by the name of Petite Ile Charlemagne. Jollois, _Histoire du siege_, engraving 1. Abbe Dubois, _Histoire du siege_, pp. 193, 199. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 16. Manuscript of M. A. Cagnieul, librarian at Orleans.] The suburbs of Orleans were the finest in the kingdom. On the south the fishermen's suburb of Le Portereau, with its Augustinian church and monastery, extended along the river at the foot of the vineyards of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, which produced the best wine in the country.[484] Above, on the gentle slopes ascending to the bleak plateau of Sologne, the Loiret, with its torrential springs, its limpid waters, its shady banks, the gardens and the brooks of Olivet, smiled beneath a mild and showery sky. [Footnote 484: Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire de l'eglise et diocese d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1647, vol. i, preface. Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p. 36.] The _faubourg_ of the Burgundian gate stretching eastwards was the best built and the most populous. There were the wonderful churches of Saint-Michel and of Saint-Aignan. The cloister of the latter was held to be marvellous.[485] Leaving this suburb and passing by the vineyards along the sandy branch of the Loire extending between the bank of the river and l'Ile-aux-Boeufs about a quarter of a league further on, one comes to the steep slope of Saint-Loup; and, advancing still further towards the east, the belfries of Saint-Jean-de-Bray, Combleux and Checy may be seen rising one beyond the other between the river and the Roman road from Autun to Paris. On the north of the city were fine monasteries and beautiful churches, the chapel of Saint-Ladre, in the cemetery; the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, the church of Saint-Pierre-Ensentelee. Directly north, the _faubourg_ of La Porte Bernier lay along the Paris road, and close by there stretched the sombre city of the wolves, the deep forest of oaks, horn-beams, beeches, and willows, wherein were hidden, like wood-cutters and charcoal-burners, the villages of Fleury and Samoy.[486] [Footnote 485: _Journal du siege_, pp. 13, 15. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 270. Hubert, _Antiquites historiques de l'eglise royale d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1661, in 8vo. Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p. 284. Abbe Dubois, _Histoire du siege_, pp. 133, 205, 277, _passim_. Jollois, _Histoire du siege_, p. 21. H. Baraude, _Le siege d'Orleans et Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1906, pp. 10 _et seq._] [Footnote 486: Le Maire, _Antiquites_, p. 43.] Towards the west the _faubourg_ of La Porte Renard stretched out into the fields along the road to Chateaudun, and the hamlet of Saint-Laurent along the road to Blois.[487]