bury. So doubtful was Henry of the result, that he sent the abbot of that place with certain proposals of peace, which were rejected by the advice of Worcester. "Then," cried Henry, "banners, advance!" and, the air began to resound with the adverse warcries of "St. George !" and "Esperance, Piercy!"the latter being the motto of Hotspur, whose crest was a lion-and the archers on each side began to discharge their arrows with the usual murderous effect. Piercy and Douglas, who a year before had been enemies and rivals, were now comrades and friends; and, with thirty chosen knights, rode side by side, as they hewed a way for themselves into the very heart of Henry's host. Douglas had sworn that the King of England should that day die by his hand, and he sought him all over the field. But Henry, acting under the advice of the Scottish Earl of March, had prudently changed his armour, and, as a simple man-at-arms, was doing his duty elsewhere, and had his horse killed under him. He had several gentlemen, however, dressed in the royal insignia of England, and the sword of the one-eyed Douglas rendered this honour fatal to most of them, Sir William Blount among others. "I marvel to see so many kings rising again!" exclaimed the bewildered Scot. "Where do they all come from?” Hotspur and he bore all before them for a time. The king's guards were dispersed, his standard beaten to the ground, and the Prince of Wales received a wound on the face. Disappointed in their expectations of slaying the king, Hotspur and Douglas were cutting a passage back through those who had closed upon their rear, when the former fell, neither by the hand of the king or Harry of Monmouth, but by a random arrow, which pierced his brain at the very moment he had lifted the ventaille of his helmet for air, or to issue an order. This decided the victory, for with him fell the courage and the cause of his followers, who now dispersed in all directions. In this unhappy strife there fell 2,300 gentlemen alone. Those of the greatest distinction lost under the banner of the king were the Earl of Stafford, Sir Hugh Shirley, Sir Nicholas Gansel, Sir Hugh Mortimer, Sir John Massey, Sir William Blount, and Sir John Calverley. About 6,000 private men fell, of these two-thirds were followers of Hotspur. All the Scottish auxiliaries perished, save Douglas and the Earl of Worcester. The former was wounded in his knee, and was released with the courtesy due to his rank; but the latter was beheaded at Shrewsbury, and his skull was placed upon London Bridge. Boethius asserts that Douglas slew certainly four that were armed on all points like King Henry, who, according to Walsingham, killed thirtysix men with his own hand. The body of the gallant Hotspur was buried with his permission; afterwards altering his mind, he barbarously had it exhumed, dismembered, and placed on poles in the highways. The Earl of Northuml erland afterwards fled to Scotland. Returning, after five years of wandering, peril, and penury, he was slain at Tadcaster, in Yorkshire. CHAPTER XIV. AGINCOURT, 1415. THE empty title of "King of France" was claimed until recent years by our monarchs; but Harry of Monmouth was the only English sovereign who ever really deserved the name. Taking advantage of the civil war which convulsed France, after his accession he revived the claim of Edward III., and demanded the fulfilment of the Treaty of Bretigny. In derision of this, there came from the Dauphin for answer a bale of tennis-balls, as a gentle hint that the young King of England was fitter for such sports than the rougher game of war. Stung by this insult, Henry V. prepared for battle. The Duke of Bedford was appointed Regent; the royal jewels were pawned, loans were raised, and the great barons were called to arms: and though some delays arose in consequence of a plot in favour of the Earl of March-a plot for which Lord Scroop and Richard of Cambridge had to die-a fleet bore Henry with an army 30,000 strong (6,000 were horse) from Southampton to the mouth of the Seine. In five weeks he reduced the strong fortress of Harfleur, on the right bank of the river; and then, with an army reduced to nearly half its original number by sickness, wounds, and desertion, he formed the bold resolution of cutting a passage to Calais by the same route as that pursued by Edward III. when he marched his troops to victory. This daring march of a hundred miles, Agincourt.] THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE. 77 through every species of opposition and danger, and others of wicker-work, crossed over with bars began on the 8th of October. The English moved of iron. He was present at the glorious field of in three columns, with cavalry on their flanks. Agincourt, and tells us how young Henry of Eng But Henry found the bridges of the Somme broken down, and the fords rendered perilous by lines of pointed stakes, till, after some delay, one undefended place was discovered near St. Quentin. He crossed rapidly, and marched upon Calais; while the Constable of France quietly awaited his approach at the village of Agincourt, on the left of the road from Abbeville to St. Omer. land, at break of day, heard three masses in succession clad in all his armour save his helmet and emblazoned surcoat. After the last mass, they "brought him the armour for his head, which was a very handsome bascinet with a baviere, upon which he had a very rich crown of gold circled over like an imperial crown." If this means with arches, it is the first instance of an English monarch wear Another historian says, "His helmet was of polished steel, surmounted by a crown sparkling with jewels, and on his surcoat were emblazoned the arms of England and of France." It is strange that in all these operations we hearing a closed crown. nothing more of cannon, which the English certainly possessed at home; for when Henry besieged Berwick, in 1405, we are told that a shot from one great gun so shattered a tower that the gates were instantly thrown open by the alarmed garrison. Hand-guns were not yet invented, and the bow was still the king of English weapons. In those days, when men-at-arms encountered each other the slaughter was seldom great: many were unhorsed, when they lay helpless until assisted to rise again; and in hot weather many were suffocated or choked in blood if their visors were not unclasped. Those among them who perished by sword-cut or lance-thrust were few in comparison to the slaughter made when they found an opening in a square of infantry, or came suddenly on unprotected archers. Hence we see that at Bannockburn the yeomanry of the English army perished almost to a man under the lances of the Scottish knights; at Flodden the Scottish bill-men were cut to pieces by the English men-at-arms; and at Homildon the Scots, and at Cressy and Poictiers the French, were destroyed chiefly by the volleys of the English archers. The night before Agincourt was dark and rainy, and to the toil-worn English it was one of hope and fear, for 100,000 French lay there before them; thus the odds against them were as seven to one. Amid the darkness of the October night, and the sheets of descending rain, they could see the whole landscape glittering with the watch-fires of the French; and frequent bursts of their laughter and merriment were borne on the passing wind, from those who were grouped about these fires or their banners, as they fixed the ransom of the English king and his wealthy barons. As for the common soldiers, they were all to be put to the sword, without mercy. out mercy. Confident in their overwhelming numbers, they never conceived the possibility of defeat; yet could they forget that they were posted within but a few miles of Cressy? As men who had staked their lives and the warlike honour of England on the issue of the coming day, the soldiers of Henry spent the night in repose, in making their wills and confessions, and preparing for battle with that gravity, order, and decorum which have ever been characteristic of British troops. The king himself took but little repose. He visited the different quarters of the army, and, during a brief season of moonlight sent certain captains of skill to examine the ground; and, to keep the hearts of the men cheerful, he ordered the trumpets, drums, and fifes to play at intervals during the night; but history fails to record the airs by which he sought to recall the memory of their homes, or the deeds of other days. So the night passed away; the French watch-fires died out, and the dawn stole on In the English military equipment of the time of Henry V., a plume in the apex of the helmet was a leading feature, and the form of the helmet itself was remarkably beautiful, with an orle or chaplet around it. The breastplates had become globular, and the steel gorget was replacing the ancient camail which had hitherto protected the throat. Hanging sleeves of rich cloth were sometimes worn with the armour; the lance-rests were hooks just below the right breast; two-handed swords with heavy blades were introduced at this time; and a pole-axe was usually carried by commanders in the field. Monstrelet, in his Chronicles, describes the English archers as being for the most part without the dawn of that great Feast of St. Crispin, the 25th armour, and in jackets, with their hose loose, with- of October, 1415. After solemn prayer, he formed out hats or caps, and often barefooted. Their his army in three great divisions, with two wings. hatchets or swords hung at their girdle. St. Remy The archers, on whom he rested his principal says that they were not bareheaded, and that many hope, he posted in front of the men-at-arms. "Their of them wore caps of cuir bouilli, or boiled leather, well-earned reputation in former battles," says Lingard, tersely, "and their savage appearance on victory, it will be plain that we owe it to His goodthis day, struck terror into their enemies. Many had stripped themselves naked; the others had bared their arms and breasts, that they might exercise their limbs with more ease and execution. Besides his bow and arrows, battle-axe and sword, each bore a large, strong stake on his shoulder, which he was instructed to fix obliquely before him ness. If He do not, the fewer we are will be in the ground, and thus oppose a rampart to the enough to be killed, enough to be taken, and charge of the French cavalry." As Henry in the morning rode from division to division, and from banner to banner, mounted on a little grey palfrey at first, cheering and exhorting his troops, he chanced to hear a gentleman express a wish to a friend "that some of the good knights who were idle in England might by a miracle be transported to the field of battle." "No," exclaimed King Henry, "I would not have a single man more. If God gives us the enough to run away." The French order of battle resembled the English, save that in some parts where the latter were but four files deep the former were thirty. The Constable of France, Charles d'Albret, Comte de Dreux, led the first line; the Dukes of Bar and D'Alençon led the second; the Lords of Marle and Falconberg led the third. The distance between the two armies at first was about a quarter of a mile, and the ground between them was wet and marshy with the rain of the past night. With the French army were 500 heavily-mailed did not advance, on the signal being made as men-at-arms, and a body of crossbow-men, sent by described by Erpingham, the king cried, "Let us John of Nevers, the Duke of Burgundy. Thus the disproportion between the armies was enormous; indeed, so small was the force of the English, that in opposing the three lines of the enemy Henry had literally three battles to fight. Before the action began Henry was surprised to see three French knights ride boldly across to the English lines, desiring to speak with him. One of them, Jacques, the Baron de Helly, Marechal of France, had been a prisoner of war in England, where he was accused of having broken his parole; and he now took this opportunity of denying the charge, and offering to meet in single combat, and in front of both armies, any man who should dare to repeat it. "This is not a time for single combats," replied the king. "Go tell your countrymen to prepare for battle before night; and doubt not that for the violation of your word you shall a second time forfeit your liberty, if not your life." Sire," retorted Helly, "I shall receive no orders from you. Charles is our sovereign; him we obey, and for him we shall fight against you whenever we think proper." "Away, then; and take care I am not before you," cried Henry, stepping forward. "Banners, advance!" Then Sir Thomas Erpingham threw his warder in the air, and the lines knelt while the men kissed some say bit-the earth; and at the distance of twenty paces from the French the English ranks halted and raised a loud cheer. Henry could only form two lines. Edward, Duke of Kent, led the first, aided by the Lords Beaumont and Willoughby and Sir John Cornwall, afterwards Baron Fanhope. Henry in person led the second, mounted on a white horse; near him floated the standard of England, and he was assisted by his brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; Mowbray, the Earl Marshal; and the Earls of Oxford and Suffolk. The men who were armed with spears, bills, and halberds closed the rear, under Thomas, Earl of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Exeter. Prior to all this, and while the morning was dusk, the king had secretly detached a body of 400 lances, who concealed themselves in a wood on the enemy's left, while 200 archers were posted in a low meadow and hidden by bushes on their right. Aware that the enemy far exceeded him in cavalry, and that his infantry, the chief strength of his army, would probably be broken by the first charge, he had commanded some archers who were in the van to plant their stakes in front; but as the French break through them, in the name of the Holy Trinity!" On this, the archers in front, under the Duke of York, began to pour their volleys upon the French; and being all chosen men, of great strength and dexterity, they did terrible execution, all the more so that the array of the enemy was so close or dense-being thirty files deep-that men could scarcely move. Spurring on their horses, and shouting their war-cries, the French men-at-arms came thundering on, with flashing lance and sword, to cut to pieces the archers; but the latter retreated quickly to the rear of their stakes, "a wonderful discipline, in which the king had exercised them himself for some days." Floundering amid the wet clayey soil, the mailed cavalry came on, only to recoil from the pointed stakes and that withering shower of arrows; while at the same moment the archers among the bushes on their flank now rose suddenly and opened upon them. The wounded men and horses discomposed the ranks; the narrow ground in which they were compelled to act hindered them from recovering order, and over all the French front began to reign confusion and dismay. Many of their horses sank to their knees in the mud. As they began to recoil, the archers slung their bows, and rushed among them with hatchets and halberds, swords and mallets, and all were now engaged in what the battles of those days always became a wild and mingled mass of all arms, fighting men and horses. Henry, who had now dismounted and fought on foot, conspicuous alike by his valour, his glittering armour, and golden crown, in attempting to pierce the second line of French, under the Duke d'Alençon, was exposed to no ordinary danger. The Duke of Gloucester was beaten to the ground by the battle-axe of the Duke d'Alençon, but Henry drove back all about him, and saved his kinsman. Animated by rage and despair, the French prince now turned his weapon on Henry, and clove the gold crown on his helmet. Henry struck him to the ground, slew two of his attendants, and would have slain him, had not he called out "Hold, I yield; I am Alençon!" On this the King of England held forth his hand, but the duke was instantly killed. Eighteen French knights had registered a solemn vow to slay the former, and some of these who fought their way to where they saw the royal standard flying actually beat Henry down upon his knees--the chief of these were Brunelet de Massinguehem, and Ganio de Bornenville-but in a few minutes all of them perished to a man. "The French fell in heaps," |