midst of the throng, holding up her little axe
(hachette) before the image of St. Angadresme, patroness of the town, and
crying, "O glorious virgin, come to my aid; to arms! to arms!" The
assault was repulsed; re-enforcements came up from Noyon, Amiens, and
Paris, under the orders of the Marshal de Rouault; and the mayor of
Beauvais presented Joan to him. "Sir," said the young girl to him, "you
have everywhere been victor, and you will be so with us." On the 9th of
July the Duke of Burgundy delivered a second assault, which lasted four
hours. Some Burgundians had escaladed a part of the ramparts; Joan
Hachette arrived there just as one of them was planting his flag on the
spot; she pushed him over the side into the ditch, and went down in
pursuit of him; the man fell on one knee; Joan struck him down, took
possession of the flag, and mounted up to the ramparts again, crying,
"Victory!" The same cry resounded at all points of the wall; the assault
was everywhere repulsed. The vexation of Charles was great; the day
before he had been almost alone in advocating the assault; in the
evening, as he lay on his camp-bed, according to his custom, he had asked
several of his people whether they thought the townsmen were prepared for
it. "Yes, certainly," was the answer; "there are a great number of
them." "You will not find a soul there to-morrow," said Charles with a
sneer. He remained for twelve days longer before the place, looking for
a better chance; but on the 12th of July he decided upon raising the
siege, and took the road to Normandy. Some days before attacking
Beauvais, he had taken, not without difficulty, Nesle in the Vermandois.
"There it was," says Commynes, "that he first committed a horrible and
wicked deed of war, which had never been his wont; this was burning
everything everywhere; those who were taken alive were hanged; a pretty
large number had their hands cut off. It mislikes me to speak of such
cruelty; but I was on the spot, and must needs say something about it."
Commynes undoubtedly said something about it to Charles himself, who
answered, "It is the fruit borne by the tree of war; it would have been
the fate of Beauvais if I could have taken the town."

Between the two rivals in France, relations with England were a subject
of constant manoeuvring and strife. In spite of reverses on the
Continent and civil wars in their own island, the Kings of England had
not abandoned their claims to the cr