CHAPTER X.
THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS FROM THE 7TH OF MARCH TO THE 28TH OF APRIL, 1429 Since the terrible and ridiculous discomfiture of the King's men in the Battle of the Herrings, the citizens of Orleans had lost all faith in their defenders.[835] Their minds agitated, suspicious and credulous were possessed by phantoms of fear and wrath.

Suddenly and without reason they believe themselves betrayed.

One day it is announced that a hole big enough for a man to pass through has been made in the town wall just where it skirts the outbuildings of the Aumone.[836] A crowd of people hasten to the spot; they see the hole and a piece of the wall which had been restored, with two loop-holes; they fail to understand, and think themselves sold and betrayed into the enemy's hands; they rave and break forth into howls, and seek the priest in charge of the hospital to tear him to pieces.[837] A few days after, on Holy Thursday, a similar rumour is spread abroad: traitors are about to deliver up the town into the hands of the English.

The folk seize their weapons; soldiers, burgesses, villeins mount guard on the outworks, on the walls and in the streets.

On the morrow, the day after that on which the panic had originated, fear still possesses them.[838] [Footnote 835: "_Pourquoy la Hire, Poton et plusieurs autres vaillants hommes qui moult enviz s'en alloient ainsi honteusement_," _Journal du siege_, p.