"Courage, my children, forward! The day shall be ours!" she cried,
as she took her place at the head of the formidable charge against
the walls which frowned and bristled with the pikes and arrows of
the English. Her voice, like a silver clarion, rang clear through
the din of the furious battle which followed:
"Bon coeur, bonne esperance, mes enfants, the hour of victory is at
hand! De la part de Dieu! De la part de Dieu!"
That was her favourite battle cry! It was God who should give the
victory.
But it was no easy victory we were to win that day. The English
fought with the energy of despair. They knew as well as we that
when Les Tourelles fell the siege would be raised. True they had
their bastilles upon the north side of the river to fall back upon,
since the Maid's counsel of destruction had not been followed. But
once dislodged from the south bank, and Orleans would lie open to
the support of her friends in the south, and the position of the
English army would be one of dire peril. For now the French were no
more cowed by craven fear of the power of their enemies.
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