From Saint Denis no assistance came from the King, and it was only on the 8th of September that, having received reinforcements, Joan of Arc was at length enabled to make a determined attack.  It was a very high and holy day in the Church Calendar—­the Feast of the Virgin’s Nativity—­and, not unmindful of the sacredness of that feast-day, Joan of Arc had determined to make a general attack; for ’the better the day the better the deed!’ was her feeling on that anniversary.  In those times the western limit of Paris was where now the wide thoroughfare of the Avenue de l’Opera runs from north to south.  The walls of the city erected under Charles V., flanked by huge moats and protected by double fortress towers, each tower having a double drawbridge, made any attack almost a forlorn hope.  The Regent’s departure from Paris points to the little fear he felt that Paris could be taken by assault; and in this matter Bedford judged rightly.

Whether or not Joan felt that some Divine assistance would enable her to surmount the barriers that lay between her and the town she was so determined to win back for her King, we cannot say.  She fought below the walls with a courage which, if the others had equalled, might have made Paris their own.  The attacking force was divided into two parts—­one, commanded by Joan, Rais, and De Gaucourt, was to attack the city at the Gate of Saint Honore; the other, led by Alencon and Clermont, was to cover the assailants, and prevent any sorties being made by the garrison.

Joan’s impetuous onslaught successfully carried the first barriers and the boulevard in front of the gate; but here she met with a check—­the heavy gates were barred, nor could she prevail on the enemy to make a sortie.

Joan of Arc, carrying her flag, dashed, under a heavy fire, into the ditch, followed by a few of the most courageous of the soldiers.  The ditch was a deep but a dry one; and rising on the further side, close beneath the town walls, was a second and a wider moat, full of water.  Here, unable to advance, but unwilling to retire, Joan of Arc and her followers were exposed to a murderous hail of shot, arrows, and other missiles.  Sending for fagots and fascines to be cast into the moat, in order to enable a kind of bridge to be thrown across, while probing with the staff of her banner the depth of the water, Joan was struck by a cross-bow bolt, which made a deep wound in her thigh.  Refusing to leave the spot, she urged on the soldiers to fill the ditch.  The day was waxing late, and the men, who had been fighting since noon, were nearly exhausted.  The news of Joan having been wounded caused a kind of panic among the French.  There came a lull in the fighting, and the recall was sounded.  Joan had almost to be forced back from before the walls by the Duke of Alencon and other of the officers.  Placed upon her horse, she was led back to the camp, Joan protesting the whole time that if the attack had only been continued it would have been crowned with success.  The spot where the heroine is supposed to have been wounded is near where now stands Fremiet’s spirited statue of the Maid of Orleans, between the Rue Saint Honore—­named in later days after the gate she had so gallantly attacked—­and the Gardens of the Tuileries.