's edition concerning the relations of
the inhabitants and the men-at-arms seems out of place, and may very
likely have been inserted there to efface the memory of the grave
dissensions which had occurred during the last week. From the 8th of
May the diary ceases to be a diary; it becomes a series of extracts
borrowed from Chartier, from Berry, and from the rehabilitation
trial. The episode of the big fat Englishman slain by Messire Jean de
Montesclere at the Siege of Jargeau is obviously taken from the
evidence of Jean d'Aulon in 1446; and even this plagiarism is
inaccurate, since Jean d'Aulon expressly says he was slain at the
Battle of Les Augustins.[23]

[Footnote 20: _Journal du siege d'Orleans_ (1428-1429), ed. P.
Charpentier and C. Cuissart, Orleans, 1896, 8vo.]

[Footnote 21: The oldest copy extant is dated 1472 (MS. fr. 14665).]

[Footnote 22: _Journal du siege d'Orleans_ (1428-1429), p. 87.
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 162, note.]

[Footnote 23: _Journal du siege_, p. 97. _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 215.]

The chronicle entitled _La Chronique de la Pucelle_,[24] as if it were
the chief chronicle of the heroine, is taken from a history entitled
_Geste des nobles Francois_, going back as far as Priam of Troy. But
the extract was not made until the original had been changed and added
to. This was done after 1467. Even if it were proved that _La
Chronique de la Pucelle_ is the work of Cousinot, shut up in Orleans
during the siege, or even of two Cousinots, uncle and nephew according
to some, father and son according to others, it would remain none the
less true that this chronicle is largely copied from Jean Chartier,
the _Journal du Siege_ and the rehabilitation trial. Whoever the
author may have been, this work reflects no great credit upon him: no
very high praise can be given to a fabricator of tales, who, without
appearing in the slightest degree aware of the fact, tells the same
stories twice over, introducing each time different and contradictory
circumstances. _La Chronique de la Pucelle_ ends abruptly with the
King's return to Berry after his defeat before Paris.

[Footnote 24: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, or _Chronique de Cousinot_,
ed. Vallet de Viriville, Paris, 1859, 16mo. (_Bibliotheque
Gauloise_).]

_Le Mystere du siege_[25] must be classed with the chronicles. It is
in fact a rhymed chronicle in dialogue, and it would be extremely
interesting for its antiquity alone were it possible to do what some
have a