It was with difficulty that the Duc d’Alencon had been got to start, his wife consenting with great reluctance.  He had been long a prisoner in England, and had lately been ransomed for a great sum of money; “Was not that a sufficient sacrifice?” the Duchess asked indignantly.  To risk once more a husband so costly was naturally a painful thing to do, and why could not Jeanne be content and stay where she was?  Jeanne comforted the lady, perhaps with a little good-humoured contempt.  “Fear nothing, Madame,” she said; “I will bring him back to you safe and sound.”  Probably Alencon himself had no great desire to be second in command to this country lass, even though she had delivered Orleans; and if he set out at all he would have preferred to take another direction and to protect his own property and province.  The gathering of the army thus becomes visible to us; parties are continually coming in; and no doubt, as they marched along, many a little chateau—­and they abound through the country each with its attendant hamlet—­gave forth its master or heir, poor but noble, followed by as many men-at-arms, perhaps only two or three, as the little property could raise, to swell the forces with the best and surest of material, the trained gentlemen with hearts full of chivalry and pride, but with the same hardy, self-denying habits as the sturdy peasants who followed them, ready for any privation; with a proud delight to hear that on besognera bientot—­with that St. Michael at their head, and no longer any fear of the English in their hearts.

The first besogne on which this army entered was the siege of Jargeau, June 11th, into which town Suffolk had thrown himself and his troops when the siege of Orleans was raised.  The town was strong and so was the garrison, experienced too in all the arts of war, and already aware of the wild enthusiasm by which Jeanne was surrounded.  She passed through Orleans on the 10th of June, and had there been joined by various new detachments.  The number of her army was now raised, we are told, to twelve hundred lances, which means, as each “lance” was a separate party, about three thousand six hundred men, though the Journal du Siege gives a much larger number; at all events it was a small army with which to decide a quarrel between the two greatest nations of Christendom.  Her associates in command were here once more seized by the prevailing sin of hesitation, and many arguments were used to induce her to postpone the assault.  It would seem that this hesitation continued until the very moment of attack, and was only put an end to when Jeanne herself impatiently seized her banner from the hand of her squire, and planting herself at the foot of the walls let loose the fervour of the troops and cheered them on to the irresistible rush in which lay their strength.  For it was with the commanders, not with the followers, that the weakness lay.  The Maid herself was struck on the head by a stone from the battlements which