Salisbury was satisfied with the result of that day’s fighting, for he knew that, once he had the command of the northern side of the tower, he could take it when necessary from that quarter.  What he aimed at for the present was to prevent all communication between the town and the south of France.  Holding the bridge, he could prevent relief from coming to the city, and when the moment arrived he would be able to throw his men with certain success upon it from the northern side.

The evening of the day in which he had made so successful an attack, Salisbury mounted into the Tournelles in order to inspect thence the city which lay beneath him.  While gazing on it, a stray cannon shot struck him on the face; he was carried, mortally wounded, from the place.  That fatal shot was said to have been fired by a lad, who, finding a loaded cannon on the ramparts, had discharged it.  For the English, it was the deadliest shot of the whole war.

Readers of Shakespeare will remember that, in the first part of Henry VI., the Master Gunner (no doubt that very ‘Maitre Jean’ whose fame was great in the besieged town) and his boy are introduced on the scene, and that the boy fires the shot which proved fatal both to Salisbury and Sir Thomas Gargrave.  The prominent place given to this French Master Gunner in the English play shows what a high reputation Maitre Jean must have had, even among the English, at the siege.

Salisbury’s death, occurring a few days after he received the wound, caused the siege to languish.  Glansdale succeeded Salisbury in the command; but it was not until the doughty Talbot and Lord Scales appeared on the scene that siege operations recommenced with vigour.

The great pounding match then began again; the huge stone shot of the English, which weighed one hundred and sixty-four livres, came tumbling about the heads of the besieged, to which cannonade the French promptly replied by a heavy fire.  They had a kind of bomb, of which they were not a little proud, wherefrom they fired iron shot of one hundred and twenty livres in weight.  The Master of Gunners of Shakespeare’s play, whose name was John de Monsteschere, made also extraordinary practice with his culverin; and he could pick off marked men in the Tournelles, as, for the misfortune of the English, had been proved in the case of Salisbury.  At times Master John would sham dead, and, just as the English were congratulating themselves on his demise, would reappear, and again use his culverin with deadly effect.

On the last day but one of the year (1428), the English had been reinforced, and were now commanded by William de la Pole, Earl, and afterwards Duke of Suffolk, under whose command acted Suffolk’s brother, John de la Pole, Lord Scales, and Lancelot de Lisle.  In order to maintain touch with his troops posted at the Tournelles, Suffolk threw up flanking batteries on the northern side of the town.  To Suffolk’s already large force Sir John Fastolfe brought a force of twelve hundred men, in the month of January (1429).