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.