[Footnote 1157: Bertrand de Broussillon, _La maison de Laval_ in 8vo, 1900, vol. iii, _loc. cit._] From Loches the Maid went to Selles-en-Berry, a considerable town on the Cher. Here, shortly before had met the three estates of the kingdom; and here the troops were now gathering.[1158] [Footnote 1158: Letter from Gui de Laval, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 105. Lucien Jeny and P. Lanery d'Arc, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, Paris, s.d. in 8vo, p. 53.] On Saturday, the 4th of June, she received a herald sent by the people of Orleans to bring her tidings of the English.[1159] As commander in war they recognised none but her. [Footnote 1159: Fortress accounts in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 262.] Meanwhile, surrounded by monks, and side by side with men-at-arms, like a nun she lived apart, a saintly life. She ate and drank little.[1160] She communicated once a week and confessed frequently.[1161] During mass at the moment of elevation, at confession and when she received the body of Our Lord she used to weep many tears. Every evening, at the hour of vespers, she would retire into a church and have the bells rung for about half an hour to summon the mendicant friars who followed the army. Then she would begin to pray while the brethren sang an anthem in honour of the Virgin Mary.[1162] [Footnote 1160: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 3, 9, 15, 18, 22, 69, 219, _passim_.] [Footnote 1161: _Ibid._, vol. v, under the words _Confession_ and _Communion_. The Duke of Alencon says twice a week (_Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 100).] [Footnote 1162: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 14; vol. ii, pp. 420, 424.] While practising as far as she was able the austerities required by extreme piety, she appeared magnificently attired, like a lord, for indeed she held her lordship from God. She wore the dress of a knight, a small hat, doublet and hose to match, a fine cloak of silk and cloth of gold well lined and shoes laced on the outer side of the foot.[1163] Such attire in no wise scandalised even the most austere members of the Dauphin's party. They read in holy Scripture that Esther and Judith, inspired by the Lord, loaded themselves with ornaments; true it was for sexual reasons and in order for the salvation of Israel to attract Ahasuerus and Holophernes. Wherefore they held that when Jeanne decked herself with masculine adornments, in order to appear before the men-at-arms as an angel giving victory to the Christian King, far from yielding to the vanities of the world, she, like Esther and Judith, had nothing in her heart but the interest of the holy nation and the glory of God. The English and Burgundian clerks on the other hand converted into scandal what was a subject of edification, and maintained that she was a woman dissolute in dress and in manners.