This circumstance, if we did not possess his signature at the conclusion of the Latin letter to the Hussites, would lead us to believe that the good Brother left the Maid immediately after the attack on La Porte Saint-Honore.

It surely cannot have chanced that in so long a series of questions and answers not one word was said of the departure from Sully or of the campaign which began at Lagny and ended at Compiegne.[70] [Footnote 70: _Trial_, vol.iii, pp.

100 _et seq._] We conclude, therefore, that in the study of this voluminous evidence we must exercise great judgment and that we must not expect it to enlighten us on all the circumstances of Jeanne's life.
Fourthly.

On certain points of the Maid's history the only exact information is to be obtained from account-books, letters, deeds, and other authentic documents of the period.

The records published by Simeon Luce and the lease of the Chateau de l'Ile inform us of the circumstances among which Jeanne grew up.[71] Neither the two trials nor the chronicles had revealed the terrible conditions prevailing in the village of Domremy from 1412 to 1425.
[Footnote 71: Simeon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy, recherches critiques sur les origines de la mission de la Pucelle_, Paris, 1886, in 8vo; _La France pendant la guerre de cent ans: episodes historiques et vie privee aux xiv'e et xv'e siecles_, Paris, 1890, in 12mo.] The fortress accounts kept at Orleans[72] and the documents of the English administration[73] enable us to estimate approximately the respective forces of defenders and besiegers of the city.