fascines to be cast into the moat, in
order to enable a kind of bridge to be thrown across, while probing
with the staff of her banner the depth of the water, Joan was struck
by a cross-bow bolt, which made a deep wound in her thigh. Refusing to
leave the spot, she urged on the soldiers to fill the ditch. The day
was waxing late, and the men, who had been fighting since noon, were
nearly exhausted. The news of Joan having been wounded caused a kind
of panic among the French. There came a lull in the fighting, and the
recall was sounded. Joan had almost to be forced back from before the
walls by the Duke of Alencon and other of the officers. Placed upon
her horse, she was led back to the camp, Joan protesting the whole
time that if the attack had only been continued it would have been
crowned with success. The spot where the heroine is supposed to have
been wounded is near where now stands Fremiet's spirited statue of the
Maid of Orleans, between the Rue Saint Honore--named in later days
after the gate she had so gallantly attacked--and the Gardens of the
Tuileries.

Within the town a great fear had fallen on the citizens, divided as
they were between the hope of their countrymen forcing their way into
the city and fear as to how they would be treated by Charles should he
be victorious. Perhaps, had Joan of Arc's urgent entreaties of
continuing the attack been more vigorously responded to by the other
French commanders, she might have been in the end successful. At any
rate Joan herself was of that opinion.

The following day she was, in spite of the previous evening's failure
and her wound, as urgent as ever for further fighting; and again and
again implored Alencon to renew the attack. It seems the Duke was on
the point of complying, when there appeared on the scene Rene d'Anjou
and Clermont, sent by the King with the order for the Maid's immediate
return to Saint Denis. There was nothing to do but to obey, but it
must have been a bitter disappointment to the brave maiden when she
turned her back on Paris. Alencon did his best to encourage her in the
hope that it might yet fall. He gave orders for a bridge to be thrown
across the Seine at Saint Denis, in order to make a fresh attack on
the city from that quarter. However, on the next night this bridge was
ordered by Charles to be removed, and with its destruction fell any
hopes Joan might still have entertained of being able to take Paris.

All the blame of the wan