And, indeed, the Sire de Rais and his company, escorted by the Marshal de Boussac and my Lord the Bastard, were skirting the Forest of Orleans.[1001] At these tidings the citizens must needs exclaim that the Maid had been right in wishing to march straight against Talbot since the captains now followed the very road she had indicated.

But in reality it was not just as they thought.

Only one part of the Blois army had risked forcing its way between the western bastions; the convoy, with its escort, like the first convoy, was coming through La Sologne and was to enter the town by water.

Those arrangements for the entrance of supplies, which, in the first instance, had proved successful, were naturally now repeated.[1002] [Footnote 1000: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.

287.] [Footnote 1001: _Ibid._, p.287._Journal du siege_, p.81.