212, 213 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).] The Maid and Sire d'Aulon, with a few fighting men of their company, pressed on through the fields to Saint-Loup.

On the way they saw certain of their party.

The good squire, unaccustomed to great battles, never remembered having seen so many fighting men at once.[1014] [Footnote 1014: _Trial_, vol.iii, p.

213.] For an hour the Sire de Rais' Bretons and the men from Le Mans had been skirmishing before the bastion.

As the custom was those who had arrived last were keeping watch.[1015] But if these combatants, who had reached the town only that very morning, had attacked without taking time to breathe, they must have been hard pressed.