ssional by Jeanne's
orders, and then crossing the river in boats, as on the preceding day,
they assailed the bulwark of the Tourelles "with light hearts and heavy
hands." But Gladsdale's men, encouraged by their bold and skilful
leader, made a resolute and able defence. The Maid planted her banner on
the edge of the fosse, and then, springing down into the ditch, she
placed the first ladder against the wall and began to mount. An English
archer sent an arrow at her, which pierced her corselet and wounded her
severely between the neck and shoulder. She fell bleeding from the
ladder; and the English were leaping down from the wall to capture her,
but her followers bore her off. She was carried to the rear and laid
upon the grass; her armor was taken off, and the anguish of her wound
and the sight of her blood made her at first tremble and weep.

But her confidence in her celestial mission soon returned: her patron
saints seemed to stand before her and reassure her. She sat up and drew
the arrow out with her own hands. Some of the soldiers who stood by
wished to stanch the blood by saying a charm over the wound; but she
forbade them, saying that she did not wish to be cured by unhallowed
means. She had the wound dressed with a little oil, and then, bidding
her confessor come to her, she betook herself to prayer.

In the mean while the English in the bulwark of the Tourelles had
repulsed the oft-renewed efforts of the French to scale the wall.
Dunois, who commanded the assailants, was at last discouraged, and gave
orders for a retreat to be sounded. Jeanne sent for him and the other
generals, and implored them not to despair.

"By my God," she said to them, "you shall soon enter in there. Do not
doubt it. When you see my banner wave again up to the wall, to your arms
again! the fort is yours. For the present, rest a little and take some
food and drink."

"They did so," says the old chronicler of the siege, "for they obeyed
her marvellously."

The faintness caused by her wound had now passed off, and she headed the
French in another rush against the bulwark. The English, who had thought
her slain, were alarmed at her reappearance, while the French pressed
furiously and fanatically forward. A Biscayan soldier was carrying
Jeanne's banner. She had told the troops that directly the banner
touched the wall they should enter. The Biscayan waved the banner
forward from the edge of the fosse, and touched the wall with it, and