graciously, and sending a messenger to the Bastard
and the captains, he rode forth from the Burgundy Gate by the side of the
Maid. He was, indeed, little minded to miss his part of the honour; nor
were the other captains more backward, for scarce had we taken boat and
reached the farther bank, when we saw the banners of the Bastard and La
Hire, Florent d'Illiers and Xaintrailles, Chambers and Kennedy, above the
heads of the armed men who streamed forth by the gate of Burgundy. Less
orderly was no fight ever begun, but the saints were of our party. It
was the wise manner of the Maid to strike swift, blow upon blow, each
stroke finding less resistance among the enemy, that had been used to a
laggard war, for then it was the manner of captains to dally for weeks or
months round a town, castle, or other keep, and the skill was to starve
the enemy. But the manner of the Maid was ever to send cloud upon cloud
of men to make escalade by ladders, their comrades aiding them from under
cover with fire of couleuvrines and bows. Even so fought that famed
Knight of Brittany, Sir Bertrand du Guesclin. But he was long dead, and
whether the Maid (who honoured his memory greatly) fought as she did
through his example, or by direct teaching of the saints, I know not.

If disorderly we began, the fault was soon amended; they who had
beleaguered the boulevard all night were set in the rear, to rest out of
shot; the fresh men were arrayed under their banners, in vineyards and
under the walls of fields, so that if one company was driven back another
was ready to come on, that the English might have no repose from battle.

Now, the manner of the boulevard was this: first, there was a strong
palisade, and many men mustered within it; then came a wide, deep, dry
fosse; then a strong wall of earth, bound in with withes and palisaded,
and within it the gate of the boulevard. When that was won, and the
boulevard taken, men defending it might flee across a drawbridge, over a
stream, narrow and deep and swift, into Les Tourelles itself. Here they
were safe from them on the side of Orleans, by reason of the broken arch
of the bridge. So strong was this tower, that Monseigneur the Duc
d'Alencon, visiting it later, said he could have staked his duchy on his
skill to hold it for a week at least, with but few men, against all the
forces in France. The captain of the English was that Glasdale who had
reviled the Maid, and concerning whom she had