He was the least of the nobles in the army; but in the battles of those days every man was a law unto himself.

The Maid's standard was still waving in front of the bulwark.

The man who bore it was dropping with fatigue and had passed it on to a soldier, surnamed the Basque, of the company of my Lord of Villars.[1083] It occurred to Sire d'Aulon, as he looked upon this standard blessed by priests and held to bring good luck, that if it were borne in front, the fighting men, who loved it dearly, would follow it and in order not to lose it would scale the bulwark.

With this idea he went to the Basque and said: "If I were to enter there and go on foot up to the bulwark would you follow me ?" [Footnote 1083: _Ibid._, vol.iii, p.216.The Count Couret, _Un fragment inedit des anciens registres de la Prevote d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1897, pp.

12, 20, 21, _passim_.] The Basque promised that he would.