327).] Jeanne took her standard to the Church of Saint-Sauveur and gave it to the priests to bless.[910] The little company formed at Tours was joined at Blois by ecclesiastics and monks, who, on the approach of the English, had fled in crowds from the neighbouring abbeys, and were now suffering from cold and hunger.

It was generally thus.

Monks were for ever flocking to the armies.

Many churches and most abbeys had been reduced to ruin.

Those of the mendicants, built outside the towns, had all perished,--plundered and burnt by the English or pulled down by the townsfolk; for, when threatened with siege, the inhabitants always dealt thus with the outlying portions of their town.