his unscrupulous opponent.

[Sidenote: Siege of Orleans]

Beaufort possessed an administrative ability, the loss of which was a
heavy blow to the struggling Regent over sea, where Humphrey's restless
ambition had already paralyzed Bedford's efforts. Much of his strength
rested on his Burgundian ally, and the force of Burgundy was drawn to
other quarters. Though Hainault had been easily won back on Gloucester's
retreat and Jacqueline taken prisoner, her escape from prison enabled her
to hold Holland for three years against the forces of the Duke of Brabant
and after his death against those of the Duke of Burgundy to whom he
bequeathed his dominions. The political strife in England itself was still
more fatal in diverting the supplies of men and money which were needful
for a vigorous prosecution of the war. To maintain even the handful of
forces left to him Bedford was driven to have recourse to mere forays
which did little but increase the general misery. The north of France
indeed was being fast reduced to a desert by the bands of marauders which
traversed it. The husbandmen fled for refuge to the towns till these in
fear of famine shut their gates against them. Then in their despair they
threw themselves into the woods and became brigands in their turn. So
terrible was the devastation that two hostile bodies of troops failed at
one time even to find one another in the desolate Beauce. Misery and
disease killed a hundred thousand people in Paris alone. At last the
cessation of the war in Holland and the temporary lull of strife in
England enabled the Regent to take up again his long-interrupted advance
upon the South. Orleans was the key to the Loire; and its reduction would
throw open Bourges where Charles held his court. Bedford's resources
indeed were still inadequate for such a siege; and though the arrival of
reinforcements from England under the Earl of Salisbury enabled him to
invest it in October 1428 with ten thousand men, the fact that so small a
force could undertake the siege of such a town as Orleans shows at once
the exhaustion of England and the terror which still hung over France. As
the siege went on however even these numbers were reduced. A new fit of
jealousy on the part of the Duke of Burgundy brought about a recall of his
soldiers from the siege, and after their withdrawal only three thousand
Englishmen remained in the trenches. But the long series of English
victories had so demoralized the Fre