He reported that the blockade was not perfected;
that provisions could still find their way--though with risk, and
danger of loss--into the town, and that messengers with letters
could pass to and fro by exercising great caution, and by the grace
of Heaven. He told her of the great fortresses the English had
built, where they dwelt in safety, and menaced the town and
battered its walls with their engines of war.
The garrison and the city were yet holding bravely out, and the
Generals Dunois and La Hire were men of courage and capacity. But
when the Maid asked how it came about that the English--who could
not be so numerous as the French forces in the town--had been
suffered to make these great works unmolested, he could only reply
with a shake of the head, and with words of evil omen.
"It is the terror of the English which has fallen upon them. Since
the victory of Agincourt, none have ever been able to see English
soldiers drawn up in battle array without feeling their blood turn
to water, and their knees quake under them.
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