5 Chapter 4 Victory

CHAPTER 4 Victory Joan and two hundred of her soldiers were now inside the walls of Orléans. Soldiers were not known for polite behavior. But Joan's army was different. She insisted that the men use no bad language. They had to go to church. When girls came to the camp to flirt with the soldiers, Joan ordered them away. Some of the soldiers resented being bossed around by Joan. The English lived in forts that they had built just outside the city walls. Sometimes Joan called out to them over the walls of the city with orders to leave France. They shouted back that they would burn her if they ever caught her.

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On May 4, French troops fought against the English at Saint-Loup (say: SAN-LOO), a town about a mile away. Back in Orléans, Joan woke suddenly from a nap. She was sure that there was fighting going on and French blood was being spilled! She raced out to Saint-Loup. When the soldiers saw Joan

riding toward them with her banner, they felt as if God was on their side. They summoned their courage and beat back the English soldiers. Victory! Joan learned more English forces would be arriving soon. The next day, May 5, was a holy day. It was considered disrespectful to God to wage war on holy days. All the armies—both French and English—honored the church's holy days, so there would be no fighting that day. Joan wrote another letter to the English. She tied it to an arrow and shot it at them. "I would have sent you this letter in a more suitable manner," she wrote, "but . . . you have kept my herald." Joan offered to trade some prisoners for the herald, but the English only answered her with insults.

This brought Joan to tears—not because it hurt her feelings, but because she hated seeing so many people get hurt in battle. Joan herself had never—and would never—kill anyone. She didn't understand why the English didn't just go home to England!

On May 7, 1429, Joan set her sights on capturing two towers that stood on the outskirts of the city. English soldiers had been stationed in them. Joan and her French soldiers attacked the towers. Around noon, as Joan was climbing a ladder, she was shot by an arrow. The arrow went deep between her