to have thought the hour somewhat
early; but Joan overruled him by telling him that it was the Divine
will that the engagement should then take place. 'Travaillez,' she
repeated, 'Travaillez! et Dieu travaillera!'

These words may well be called Joan of Arc's life motto, and the
secret of her success. 'Had she,' she asked Alencon, 'ever given him
reason to doubt her word?' And she reminded him how she had promised
his wife to bring him, Alencon, back safe and sound from this
expedition. Joan seems throughout that day's fighting to have watched
over the Duke's safety with much anxious care; at one hour of the day
she bade him leave a position from which he was watching the attack,
as she told him that if he remained longer in that place he would get
slain from some catapult or engine, to which she pointed on the walls.
Hardly had the Duke left the spot when a Seigneur de Lude was struck
and killed by a shot from the very engine about which Joan had warned
Alencon.

Hour after hour raged the attack; both Joan and Alencon directed the
storming parties under a heavy fire. A stone from a catapult struck
Joan on her helmet as she was in the act of mounting a ladder--she
fell back, stunned, into the ditch, but soon revived, and rising, with
her undaunted courage, she turned to hearten her followers, declaring
that the victory would be theirs. In a few more moments the place was
in possession of the French. Suffolk fled to the bridge which spanned
the Loire: there he was captured. A soldier named William Regnault
beat him to the ground, but Suffolk refused to yield to one so low in
rank, and is said to have dubbed his victor knight before giving him
up his sword. Besides Suffolk, a brother of his was taken, and four or
five hundred men were killed or captured. The place was pillaged. The
most important of the prisoners were shipped to Orleans.

The following day Joan returned to Orleans with Alencon, where they
remained two days to rest their men, after which they proceeded to
Meun. This was a strongly fortified town on the Loire, about an equal
distance from Orleans on the west and from Jargeau on the east.

The first success of the French was the occupation of a bridge held by
the English. They then descended the river, and attacked the town of
Beaugency. This town had been abandoned by the English garrison, who
had thrown themselves into the castle. Here it was that the army of
the Loire was joined by the Constable de Ri