A Ballad of Orleans
(1429)
The fray began at the middle-gate.
Between the night and the day;
Before the matin bell was rung
The foe was far away.
No knight in all the land of France
Could gar that foe to flee,
Till up there rose a young maiden,
And drove them to the sea.
Sixty forts around Orleans town.
And sixty forts of stone!
Sixty forts at our gates last night—
To-day there is not one!
Talbot, Suffolk, and Pole are fled
Beyond the Loire, in fear—
Many a captain who would not drink
Hath drunken deeply there—
Many a captain is fallen and drowned.
And many a knight is dead.
And many die in the misty dawn
While the forts are burning red.
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