It will be a difficult matter to turn them out."[995] [Footnote 995: _Chronique de la fete_, in _Trial_, vol.v, p.

291.] If notary Guillaume Girault, if draper Jean Luillier, if Messire Jean de Macon, instead of fostering these gloomy ideas, had counted the numbers of the besieged and the besieging, they would have found that the former were more numerous than the latter; and that the army of Scales, of Suffolk, of Talbot appeared mean and feeble when compared with the great besieging armies of the reign of King Henry V.Had they looked a little more closely they would have perceived that the bastions, with the formidable names of London and of Paris, were powerless to prevent either corn, cattle, pigs, or men-at-arms being brought into the city; and that these gigantic dolls were being mocked at by the dealers, who, with their beasts, passed by them daily.

In short, they would have realised that the people of Orleans were for the moment better off than the English.

But they had examined nothing for themselves.

They were content to abide by public opinion which is seldom either just or correct.