[Footnote 487: Abbe Dubois, _Histoire du siege_, p. 296. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, le ravitaillement d'Orleans, nouveaux documents_, Orleans, 1874, in large 8vo, with topographical plan: _Orleans, la Loire et ses iles en 1429_.] These _faubourgs_ were so populous and so extensive that when, on the approach of the English, the people from the suburbs took refuge within the city the number of its inhabitants was doubled.[488] [Footnote 488: Abbe Dubois, _Histoire du siege_, pp. 391, 399. Jollois, _Histoire du siege_, pp. 41, 44. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siege_, Orleans, 1867, in 8vo, p. 24. Lottin, _Recherches sur Orleans_, vol. i, p. 141.] The inhabitants of Orleans were resolved to fight, not for their honour indeed; in those days no honour redounded to a citizen from the defence of his own city; his only reward was the risk of terrible danger. When the town was captured the great and wealthy had but to pay ransom and the conqueror entertained them well; the lesser and poorer nobility ran greater risks. In this year, 1428, the knights, who defended Melun and surrendered after having eaten their horses and their dogs, were drowned in the Seine. "Nobility was worth nothing," ran a Burgundian song.[489] [Footnote 489: Le Roux de Lincy, _Chants historiques et populaires du temps de Charles VII_, Paris, 1862, in 18mo, p. 28.] But generally being of noble birth saved one's life. As for those burghers brave enough to defend themselves, they were likely to perish. There were no fixed rules with regard to them; sometimes several were hanged; sometimes only one, sometimes all. It was also lawful to cut off their heads or to throw them into the water, sewn in a sack. In that same year, 1428, Captains La Hire and Poton had failed in their assault on Le Mans and decamped just in time. The citizens who had aided them were beheaded in the square du Cloitre-Saint-Julien, on the Olet stone, by order of William Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had already arrived at Olivet, and of John Talbot, the most courteous of English knights, who was shortly to come there too.[490] Such an example was sufficient to warn the people of Orleans. [Footnote 490: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 225, 226. _Geste des nobles_, p. 202. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 251. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 59. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armee anglaise_, pp. 107, 112.]