rising for
their king and country, they were rather in arms against the Maid. They
had no wish to fall in a general massacre, as the English and
Burgundians falsely told them would be their fate.

Thus the delay of the king gave the English time to make Paris almost
impregnable, and to frighten the people, who, had Charles marched
straight from Reims, would have yielded as Reims did.

D'Alencon kept going to Senlis urging Charles to come up with the main
army. He went on September 1--the king promised to start next day.
D'Alencon returned to the Maid, the king still loitered. At last
d'Alencon brought him to St. Denis on September 7, and there was a
skirmish that day.

HOW THE MAID WAS WOUNDED IN ATTACKING PARIS, AND HOW THE KING WOULD NOT
LET THE ASSAULT BEGIN AGAIN

In all descriptions of battles different accounts are given, each man
telling what he himself saw, or what he remembers. As to the assault on
Paris on September 8, the Maid herself said a few words at her trial.
Her Voices had neither commanded her to attack nor to abstain from
attacking. Her opinion was that the captains and leaders on her side
only meant to skirmish in force, and to do deeds of chivalry. But her
own intention was to press onwards, and, by her example, to make the
army follow her. It was thus that she took Les Tourelles at Orleans.
This account scarcely agrees with what we read in the book of Perceval
de Cagny, who was with his lord, the Duc d'Alencon. He says that about
eight on the morning of September 8, the day of Our Lady, the army set
forth; some were to storm the town; another division was to remain under
cover and protect the former if a sally was made by the English. The
Maid, the Marshal de Rais, and De Gaucourt led the attack on the Porte
St. Honore.[24] Standard in hand, the Maid leaped into the fosse near the
pig market. 'The assault was long and fierce, and it was marvel to hear
the noise of cannons and culverins from the walls, and to see the clouds
of arrows. Few of those in the fosse with the Maid were struck, though
many others on horse and foot were wounded with arrows and stone
cannon-balls, but by God's grace and the Maid's good fortune, there was
none of them but could return to camp unhelped. The assault lasted from
noon till dusk, say eight in the evening. After sunset the Maid was
struck by a crossbow bolt in the thigh; and, after she was hurt, she
cried but the louder that all should attack, and that the p