It became evident to Lord Scales, William Pole, and Sir John Talbot, who since Salisbury's[542] death had been conducting the siege, that months and months must elapse ere the investment could be completed and the city surrounded by a ring of forts connected by a moat. Meanwhile the miserable _Godons_, up to the ears in mud and snow, were freezing in their wretched hovels,--mere shelters of wood and earth. If things went on thus they were in danger of being worse off and more starved than the besieged. Therefore, following the example of the late Earl, from time to time they tried to bring matters to a crisis; without great hope of success they endeavoured to take the town by assault.[543] [Footnote 542: Boucher de Molandon and A. de Beaucorps, _L'armee anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 3 _et seq._ Jarry, _Le compte de l'armee anglaise_, proofs and illustrations v, p. 233.] [Footnote 543: Jan. 1, 2. _Journal du siege_, pp. 21, 22, 30.] On the side of the Renard Gate the wall was lower than elsewhere; and, as their strongest force lay in this direction, they preferred to attack this part of the ramparts. They stormed the Renard Gate, rushing against the barriers with loud cries of Saint George; but the king's men and the city bands drove them back to their bastions.[544] Each of these ill planned and useless assaults cost them many men. And they already lacked both soldiers and horses. [Footnote 544: 4-27 Jan. _Journal du siege_, pp. 21, 22, 30.] Neither had they succeeded in alarming the people of Orleans by their double bombardment on the south and on the west. There was a joke in the town that a great cannon-ball had fallen near La Porte Banniere into the midst of a crowd of a hundred people without touching one, except a fellow who had his shoe taken off by it, but suffered no further hurt than having to put it on again.[545] [Footnote 545: 17 Jan. _Ibid._, p. 26.] Meanwhile the French, English, and Burgundian knights took delight in performing valiant deeds of prowess. Whenever the whim took them, and under the slightest protest, they sallied forth into the country, but always with the object of capturing some booty, for they thought of little else. One day, for instance, towards the end of January, when it was bitterly cold, a little band of English marauders entered the vineyards of Saint-Ladre and Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle to gather sticks for firewood. The watchman no sooner announces them than behold all the banners flying to the wind. Marshal de Boussac, Messire Jacques de Chabannes, Seneschal of Bourbonnais, Messire Denis de Chailly, and many another baron, and with them captains and free-lances, make forth into the fields. Not one of them can have commanded as many as twenty men.[546] [Footnote 546: _Ibid._, p. 32.]