76/98 21, 22, 30.] Neither had they succeeded in alarming the people of Orleans by their double bombardment on the south and on the west. There was a joke in the town that a great cannon-ball had fallen near La Porte Banniere into the midst of a crowd of a hundred people without touching one, except a fellow who had his shoe taken off by it, but suffered no further hurt than having to put it on again.[545] [Footnote 545: 17 Jan. 26.] Meanwhile the French, English, and Burgundian knights took delight in performing valiant deeds of prowess. Whenever the whim took them, and under the slightest protest, they sallied forth into the country, but always with the object of capturing some booty, for they thought of little else. |