This idea made them mad.[997] There was a rumour that the Marshal de Boussac, who had started with my Lord the Bastard to meet the second convoy of supplies, and who was to return on Tuesday the 3rd, would not come back.

It was said that the Chancellor of France wanted to disband the army.

It was absurd.

On the contrary, great efforts for the deliverance of the city were being made by the King's Council and that of the Queen of Sicily.

But the people's brains had been turned by their long suffering and their terrible danger.