The English had now run short of supplies, and eagerly awaited the arrival of Sir John Fastolfe, who was on his road to Orleans.  Joan of Arc felt uneasy, lest she might not be able to cut off Fastolfe and his supplies, and she playfully threatened Dunois with his instant execution if he failed to tell her of the moment he learnt of his approach.  Her anxiety was well founded, for the attack commenced before she had been apprised of it.  She had lain down for a short repose one afternoon, when she heard the sounds of a cannonade.  She instantly ordered her squire d’Aulon to arm her, as she must immediately attack the English; but whether those at the Tournelles, or the advancing force under Fastolfe, she could not yet tell.

While arming, a great clamour rang through the town:  the enemy were said to be at hand, and the battle already engaged.  Hastily throwing on her armour, with the assistance of her hostess and d’Aulon, she dashed off on her horse, and had only time to snatch her flag, as it was handed to her from a window, so impetuous was she to enter the fray.

As she galloped down the street the sparks flew from the stones, through the High Street and past the cathedral, and out by the Burgundy Gate.  The action had already been raging, and the wounded were being borne back into the town.  It was the first time the Maid came face to face with such grisly sights—­the agony of the wounded, the blood and gaping wounds.  Her squire, d’Aulon, who has left some record of that day, says how much she grieved over the wounded as they were carried past her; her beloved countrymen bleeding and dying affected her deeply.  As her page writes, she said she could not see French blood without her hair rising with horror at the sight.

Before she reached the field the day had been lost and won, the English were in full retreat, and the battle now lay around the bastilles of Saint Loup.  About a mile to the north-east of the town were the Englishmen; strongly entrenched, the place commanded that portion of the river which Talbot had garrisoned with some three hundred of his best troops.  Joan now gave instructions that no aid should reach this portion of the English defences from the adjacent bastilles.  All around the fight raged, and Joan was soon in the hottest of the engagement, encouraging her soldiers, her flag in her hand.  Dismounting, she stood on the edge of the earthwork, beyond which the English were at bay.

Talbot, seeing his men hard pressed, gave orders for a sortie to be made from one of the other towers, named Paris, and thus cause a diversion, while another force attacked the French in their rear.  This expedient, however, failed, for a fresh force appeared at this juncture from Orleans, led by Boussac and De Graville, who beat back the attack of the English.  The English troops within the fortress of Saint Loup were slain or taken.  Joan herself rescued some of these, and placed them under her protection; caring for them in the house she was staying in.