Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France.Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds I will lend the French, instead of eyes, Το weep their intermissive miseries 10..

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance,

France is revolted from the English quite;
Except some petty towns of no import:
The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims;
The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his side.

Exe. The Dauphin is crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?

Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats; Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out.

Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is overrun.

Enter a third Messenger.

3 Mess. My gracious lords, to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's hearse,— I must inform you of a dismal fight,

Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French.

Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so?
3 Mess. O, no; wherein Lord Talbot was o'er-
thrown:

The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orleans,

Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three and twenty thousand of the French

10 i. e. their miseries which have only a short intermission.

Was round encompassed and set upon :
No leisure had he to enrank his men;

He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confusedly,
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance.
Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him ;
Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army stood agaz'd on him:
His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up,
If Sir John Fastolfe 11 had not play'd the coward;
He being in the vaward (plac'd behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them),
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
Hence grew the general wreck and massacre;
Enclosed were they with their enemies:

11

A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
Durst not presume to look once in the face.

Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself,

11 For an account of this Sir John Fastolfe, vide Biographia Britannica, by Kippis, vol. v. ; in which is his life, written by Mr. Gough. See also Anstis On the Order of the Garter; Parkins' Supplement to Blomefield's History of Norfolk; Capel's Notes to Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 221; and Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Paston Letters. He is said by Hall to have been degraded for cowardice; and Heylin, in his History of St. George, tells us that he was afterwards, upon good reasons by him alledged in his defence, restored to his honour.'

For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd.

3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And Lord Scales with him, and Lord Hungerford : Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise.

pay:

Bed. His ransome there is none but I shall
I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne,
His crown shall be the ransome of my friend;
Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.-
Farewell, my masters; to my task will I;
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great Saint George's feast withal:
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake.
3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is be-
sieg'd;

The English army is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth supply,

And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.

Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry

sworn;

Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.

Bed. I do remember it; and here take leave,

To go about my preparation.

[Exit. Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I can,

To view the artillery and munition;

And then I will proclaim young Henry king. [Exit. Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordain'd his special governor ;

And for his safety there I'll best devise.

[Exit.

Win. Each hath his place and function to attend :

I am left out: for me nothing remains.

But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to steal 12,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.

[Exit. Scene closes.

SCENE II. France. Before Orleans.

Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and Others.

Char. Mars his true moving 1, even as in the heavens,

So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English side;
Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
What towns of any moment, but we have?
At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.

Alen. They want their porridge, and their fat bullbeeves:

Either they must be dieted like mules,

And have their provender tied to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.

Reig. Let's raise the siege; Why live we idly here?

12 The old copy reads send, the present reading was proposed by Mason, who observes that the king was not at this time in the power of the cardinal, but under the care of the duke of Exeter. The second article of accusation brought against the bishop by the duke of Gloucester is 'that he purposed and disposed him to set hand on the king's person, and to have removed him from Eltham to Windsor, to the intent to put him in governance as him list.' Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 591. The necessity of the rhime, and the disagreeable clash of the words intend and send, also show the propriety of the alteration.

You are as ignorant in the true movings of my muse as the astronomers are in the true movings of Mars, which to this day they could never attain to.' Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, by Nash, 1596, Preface.

Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury;
And he may well in fretting spend his gall,
Nor men, nor money, hath he to make war.

Char. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them. Now for the honour of the forlorn French :Him I forgive my death, that killeth

me,

When he sees me go back one foot, or fly. [Exeunt.

Alarums: Excursions: afterwards a Retreat. Re-enter CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and Others.

Char. Who ever saw the like? what men have I?— Dogs! cowards! dastards!-I would ne'er have fled, But that they left me 'midst my enemies. Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide; He fighteth as one weary of his life. The other lords, like lions wanting food, Do rush upon us as their hungry prey 2.

Alen. Froissard, a countryman of ours, records, England all Olivers and Rowlands bred, During the time Edward the Third did reign. More truly now may this be verified; For none but Samsons, and Goliasses, It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! Lean raw-bon'd rascals; who would e'er suppose They had such courage and audacity?

Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd slaves,

And hunger will enforce them to be more eager:

2 i. e. the prey for which they are hungry.

3 These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are the theme of the old romances. From the equally doughty and unheard of exploits of these champions, arose the saying of Giving a Rowland for an Oliver, for giving a person as good as he brings.