urgesses, called _quarteniers_ because they
represented the twenty-four quarters of the city. From the end of July
all danger of a surprise had been guarded against.[1753]

[Footnote 1753: Rymer, _Foedera_, May. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
332. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 355. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
pp. 106, 107. Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 290, note 1. G.
Lefevre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, p. 9. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
216, note 5; vol. iv, appendix xviii.]

On the 10th of August, on Saint-Laurence's Eve, while the Armagnacs
were encamped at La Ferte-Milon, the Saint-Martin Gate, flanked by
four towers and a double drawbridge, was closed; and all men were
forbidden to go to Saint-Laurent, either to the procession or to the
fair, as in previous years.[1754]

[Footnote 1754: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

On the 28th of the same month, the royal army occupied Saint-Denys.
Henceforth no one dared leave the city, neither for the vintage nor
for the gathering of anything in the kitchen gardens, which covered
the plain north of the town. Prices immediately went up.[1755]

[Footnote 1755: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 166. _Chronique des cordeliers_, folio, 486 verso.]

In the early days of September, the _quarteniers_, each one in his own
district, had the trenches set in order and the cannons mounted on
walls, gates, and towers. At the command of the aldermen, the hewers
of stone for the cannon made thousands of balls.[1756]

[Footnote 1756: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

From My Lord, the Duke of Alencon, the magistrates received letters
beginning thus: "To you, Provost of Paris and Provost of the Merchants
and Aldermen...." He named them by name and greeted them in eloquent
language. These letters were regarded as an artifice intended to
render the townsfolk suspicious of the aldermen and to incite one
class of the populace against the other. The only answer sent to the
Duke was a request that he would not spoil any more paper with such
malicious endeavours.[1757]

[Footnote 1757: _Ibid._, pp. 243, 244.]

The chapter of Notre-Dame ordered masses to be said for the salvation
of the people. On the 5th of September, three canons were authorised
to make arrangements for the defence of the monastery. Those in charge
of the sacristy took measures to hide the relics and the treasure of
the cathedral from the Armagnac soldiers. For tw