Agincourt ] THE VICTORY. 81 De says a writer, "some of these frightful piles reach-borne before them, 1,500 knights, and 7,000 soling to the height of a man, from the top or the sides of which the two parties alternately fought, as if these mounds of carnage had been common ramparts." It was a miracle that Henry escaped, as he was a mark for the weapon of every Frenchman who could reach him. The death of Alençon so utterly discouraged the troops that, despite all the exertions of the Constable d'Albret, they began to take flight. Their third line, being still fresh and in good order, might certainly have restored for France the failing fortune of the day; but their hearts were already sinking, and when they saw the 400 English lances advancing at a rapid trot from the wood upon their left flank, they gave way, and, without striking a blow, left to the mercy of an almost victorious enemy the broken troops of the second line, which it was their duty to cover and support. The conflict still continued, for now the English had nothing more to do than kill or capture as they pleased. King Henry, perceiving that the troops of the third line were hovering at a little distance, as if preparing to return, sent to them a herald with a message to leave the field instantly or they should receive no quarter. This menace succeeded almost beyond his expectation, as they instantly retired, and the battle was won; but still the slaughter was not over. Word was suddenly brought to Henry that the routed enemy was now in his rear. Astonished by an incident so unexpected, he hurried to the summit of an eminence that lay between the field and his camp at Maisoncelles, and saw that the greatest disorder prevailed there. His baggage-guard was dispersed, and seeking flight from some unknown assailants. Supposing the battle was about to be renewed, he ordered the instant destruction of all the prisoners save those of rank; and a new and dreadful slaughter of the defenceless and unarmed continued till 14,000 were slain, before he discovered his mistake and stopped it. The broil in the camp was occasioned by a band of 600 fugitives, led by Robert de Bournonville, Isambart d'Agincourt, and others; who having left the battle "betimes," and knowing that Henry's camp was but slenderly protected, betook them to the work of pillaging it, till attacked and put to flight. In this battle, so memorable alike to England and to France, the French lost the Constable d'Albret, the Dukes of Alençon and Brabant, the Count de Nevers, the Duke of Bar, the Counts of Vaudemont, Marle, Roussi, and Falconberg, more than a hundred of different ranks who had banners diers. Of the English there were slain only the Duke of York, the young Earl of Suffolk, and, if we are to believe certain English historians, four knights, one squire, and twenty-four soldiers. Mezeray reckons the loss at 1,600 men, and Monstrelet at one hundred more than that number. The most eminent among the prisoners were the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, the Marshal Boucicault, and the Counts of Vendôme and Richemont. Orleans was found wounded, under a heap of dead, by the archers when plundering on the field; and perceiving some signs of life in him, they carried him to King Henry, who ordered him to be treated with all care and courtesy. He was author of some of the earliest poetical valentines known, and some written by him when in the Tower of London are now preserved in the British Museum. The king now sent for Montjoy, a French herald, who came for permission to bury the dead, and said to him— "To whom belongs this victory?" in "To you, sire,” replied Montjoy. "And what castle is that which we can perceive the distance?" 'It is called the castle of Agincourt, sire." "Then let this be called the battle of Agincourt," said Henry. He further added that the sins of France, and not his soldiers, had wrought her defeat, and ordered the hymn, "Non nobis, Domine," to be chanted by the whole army. To John Wodehouse, of Kimberly, in Norfolk, for bravery in this field, he granted an augmentation of honour to his coat-ofarms-viz., on the chevron, guttée de sang (drops of blood), with the motto, "Frappez fort." That shattered host could now achieve no more. Henry at once marched to Calais with his prisoners, and thence proceeded to Dover, where the people, in their joy to welcome a monarch so gallant and heroic, rushed into the water to receive and to bear him ashore. On the 23rd of November, just a month after the battle, and while the hearts of the people were brimming over with enthusiam, amid shouting crowds and waving banners, he made his triumphal entry into London. At Blackheath he was received by the mayor and aldermen, arrayed in orient grained scarlet, "and 400 commoners, in beautiful murrey, all with rich collars and chains, and on horseback." At St. Thomas à Watering he was met by all the clergy in solemn procession, with sumptuous vestments, crosses, and censers. The then quaint and narrow old streets were gaily decorated. A giant stood on the central tower of London Bridge; and a St. George, armed on all points, was placed at the gate next the city. The tower of the conduit on Cornhill was decked with scarlet cloth; the cross of Chepe was concealed by "a noble castle," from whence came forth "a chorus of virgins, with timbrel and dance, as to another David coming from the slaughter of Goliath; and their song of congratulation was, 'Welcome, Henry the Fifte, King of England and France!'" And amid all this pageantry the king passed to his devotions in old St. Paul's: and so modest was he in his nature, that he would not permit his bruised and battered helmet to be exhibited, as a trophy of his valour, to the people; but after his death it was hung above his tomb in Westminster Abbey. There, too, were placed the shield and war-saddle he used on that terrible Feast of St. Crispin, at Agincourt, which put all France in mourning. Subsequent to that event there ensued some fighting by sea. To retake Harfleur, in which Henry had left a garrison under the Earl of Dorset, the French besieged it on the land side, under the new Constable d'Armagnac; while a squadron, under the Vice-Admiral Narbonne, with a fleet of Castilian and Genoese ships, which had attacked Portsmouth, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight, blocked it up by sea. Dorset made a brave defence, but he had only some 1,500 men, and being reduced to the direst extremity, he was on the point of capitulating, when a fleet of 400 sail, under the Duke of Bedford, having on board 20,000 English, was seen steering for the mouth of the Seine. Dorset had with him the Earl Marshal, and the Earls of Oxford, Huntingdon, Warwick, Arundel, Salisbury, and Devonshire. Perceiving that it was impossible to succour the little garrison without first breaking through the blockade formed by the combined fleets of the Constable, of John II. of Castile (then an infant), and of the Genoese, whose ruler was Thomas Fregosso, an elective duke, he instantly made the signal for battle, and, being to windward, bore down upon them, grappled, and engaged. Long, bloody, and furious was the engagement; but the three allies were totally defeated, and 500 sail (among which were five Genoese carracks, ships from their size then supposed to be impregnable) were taken or sunk, with all on board. nothing then prevented the Duke of Bedford from throwing succour into Harfleur, the Constable raised the siege and retired. This signal sea-fight is said to have occurred about the end of July. And as Henry V. was undoubtedly the great restorer of the English navy, and during his brilliant career in France his attention was constantly directed to guarding the coast, and the erection of fortifications at Portsmouth and other places; and when, on the renewal of the war, in 1417, he made preparations for again returning to the Continent, when he embarked his army of 25,500 men at Dover his fleet consisted of 1,500 ships. Two of these vessels had sails of purple, adorned with the arms of England and France. One was named "the King's Chamber," the other "the King's Hall”—as a kind of proof that he affected to keep his Court at sea, and considered his ships royal, like his palace. In this force he had no less than 16,000 men-at-arms; and for the first time we hear of a long train of artillery," and other warlike engines, meaning those of the past ages. The shields of the knights on board the ships of those days were all fixed round the gunwale, as a kind of ornament and additional bulwark in battle. CHAPTER XV. BAUJE, 1421-CREVANT, 1423-VERNEUIL, 1424. BAUJE. WHEN Henry re-landed in France, that country was rent by civil dissensions; and slowly but surely he extended his conquests, until the fall of Rouen, after a siege of six months, laid all Normandy at his feet, while his path to the throne of France was opened by an unforeseen circumstance. The foul murder of the Duke of Burgundy threw all that prince's faction, thirsting for vengeance, on the side of Henry. He was thus enabled to dictate the famous Treaty of Troyes, by which the crown of France was transferred to the House of Lancas ter. How true seemed his reply to the Pope's legate, who urged peace shortly before this :-" Do you not see that God has led me hither as by the hand? France has no sovereign; I have just pretensions to that kingdom, and no one now thinks of resisting me. Can I have a more sensible proof that the Being who disposes of empires has determined to put the crown of France on my head?" The three leading conditions of the treaty were, that Henry would receive in marriage the French Princess Catherine; that he should be Regent of Baujé.] THE SCOTTISH LEADERS. 83 France during the life of the imbecile Charles Scots upon the sea; but the order came too late, VI.; and that he should succeed to the French and in the summer of 1420, the earl, who had throne on that prince's death, an event easily embarked with a force stated by Balfour at 10,000, brought about in those days. But a short visit by another at 7,000 men, was safely landed by to England with his bride was suddenly clouded the carracks of Castile and Arragon at Rochelle, by disastrous tidings, which quickly recalled him whence they marched at once to the aid of the to France. Reinforced by a large body of Scots, Dauphin, who was then about to attempt the reunder the Earl of Buchan, the Dauphin had duction of Languedoc, and who by a courier routed the English at Baujé, and slain the informed the earl that he had been deceived by the Duke of Clarence, Henry's brother; and these pretended reconciliation at Pouilly le Fort with the events came about in the following manner. new Duke of Burgundy. Robert III., King of Scotland, fearing the power of his brother, resolved to send his son, Prince James, to France; but the vessel in which he embarked, being driven in a storm on the English coast, he was somewhat treacherously detained by Henry, who eventually gave the young prince a good education, which, however, failed to enable him to tame the fierce nobles and chiefs of his native kingdom. On these tidings coming to the castle of Rothesay, the old king died of grief. Years of a regency ensued in Scotland, and the young king was left unransomed in the hands of Henry. One of the secret springs of action in this affair has been fully explained by Tytler, in his historical remarks on the supposed death of Richard II., who was then believed to have escaped into Scotland, where he was fostered and protected by the Regent Albany, as a bugbear to Henry and his family. In the year 1419, when Albany was succeeded in the regency by his son, Murdoch, and while a war between England and Scotland was raging on the borders, the Duc de Vendôme arrived as ambassador from Charles, the Dauphin of France, craving assistance against King Henry, and the request was not made in vain. The Scots, we are told, had beheld with natural alarm and jealousy the signal success of the English arms in France. If her ancient ally fell in the contest, it was just possible that Scotland might be humbled too; hence it was resolved to send succour and it is somewhat remarkable that the first signal defeat sustained by the English on the soil of France came from the hands of their fellow-islanders. Under Sir John Stuart, Earl of Buchan, youngest son of Robert, Duke of Albany, it was resolved to send an auxiliary force to France, in shipping that was to be provided by that country, and by Don Juan, King of Castile, and Alphonso the Infant of Arragon, with whom the Scots were in alliance. The two last-named princes promised a fleet of forty sail. Henry, who was at home with his young French queen, on hearing of these preparations, had ordered his brother, Bedford, the Regent of France, to leave no means untried for ntercepting Buchan and his Among the Scottish leaders who came with Buchan, were Sir John Stewart of Darnley (constable of the troops), who was slain at the siege of Orleans, in 1429; Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigton, afterwards Lord of Longueville and Marshal of France; Sir Henry Cunningham of Kilmaurs ; Sir Robert Houston; Sir Hew Kennedy; Sir Alexander Buchanan, of that ilk, and Sir John Swinton, of that ilk, both slain at Verneuil; Sir John Carmichael; Sir William Crawford, killed at the siege of Clavell; Sir Robert Maxwell, of Calderwood, who died of his wounds at Chinon; and others, like them, all well-trained in the ceaseless warfare of those stormy times. This expedition brings us to the earliest authentic record of an important feature in British history, the influence of the Scots in France; and in the War Office "Records of the First Regiment of Foot," which now represents in an unbroken line the Scots of Lord Buchan, we find the following paragraph:-" It is recorded in history that so early as the year 882, Charles III. of France had twenty-four armed Scots, in whose fidelity and valour he reposed confidence, to attend his person as a guard. When Henry V., after having gained the memorable victory at Agincourt, was acknowledged as heir to the French throne by Charles VI., the Scots guard appear to have quitted the Court and taken part with the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII., in his resistance to the new arrangement, which deprived him of the succession to the crown. At that time 7,000 men were sent from Scotland, under the Earl of Buchan, to assist the Dauphin; and these auxiliaries having evinced signal gallantry on several occasions, especially at the battle of Baujé, &c., Charles selected from among them 100 men-at-arms and 100 archers for the protection of the royal person, subsequently, designated the "Gendarmes Ecossaises." The Scots continued with the French army, and signalised themselves at the capture of Avranches, in Normandy, in 1422; and at the battle of Crevant, in 1423. An additional force of 5,000 men was sent from Scotland in 1424; and the Scots gave proof of personal bravery at the battle of Verneuil, and in He immediately set forth with all his knights and cavalry; "beside his other gallant furniture and rich armour," wearing round his helmet a royal coronet set with many jewels. The Earl of Salis the attack on the English convoy under Sir John Fastolfe, in 1429; and after these repeated instances of gallantry, Charles VII. selected a number of Scots gentlemen of quality and approved valour, whom he constituted a guard, and to which he gave pre-bury was to follow at all speed, with 4,000 infantry cedence over all the other troops in France, and this guard was designated "Le Garde du Corps Ecossaises." and archers. The Scots and the Dauphinois were, we have said, at Baujé, situated on the Couanon river, which was there crossed by an ancient bridge, and the battle which ensued there resembles in some of the features the greater one fought at Stirling by Wallace and the Earl of Surrey a hundred and twenty years before. The Couanon was both deep and rapid, and its narrow bridge was the only means by which these foes could approach each other. Under Sir John Stewart, of Darnley, and the Sieur de la Fontaine, Buchan had sent forward a reconnoitring party, who saw in time the glittering lances of Clarence advancing, and fell back duly to warn the camp, where the immediate cry was "To arms!" and Buchan drew up his forces in order of battle in front of the town, on the 22nd of March, 1421. Clarence, we are told, was inspired by hot anger on finding the passage of the river was to be disputed by the Scots; and he might have remem To Buchan and his Scots were first assigned the town and castle of Chatillion, in Touraine. Of their constitution some information is given us by the rules for war drawn up by the late King Robert III., for the regulation of the Scottish and French forces. "Pillage was forbidden, under pain of death. Any soldier killing another was to be instantly executed; any soldier striking a gentleman was to lose his hand or his ears; any gentleman defying another was to be put under arrest. If knights rioted, they were to be deprived of their horses and armour; and whoever unhorsed an Englishman was to have half his ransom." Blows were soon exchanged between them and the English and Burgundians. Sir Robert Maxwell was mortally wounded, and expired at Chinon, bequeathing by will his coat of mail to his brother John, "and ten pounds to his little foot-bered at such a time the old English proverb, page." Their success in France so enraged King which Shakespeare afterwards introduced in his Henry, that he brought over with him in his next "Henry V.:"expedition the captive King of Scotland, in whose name he ordered Buchan and his forces to abstain from all acts of hostility. But to this the earl replied, "that so long as his sovereign was a captive, and under the control of others, he did not feel himself bound to obey him." This so enraged Henry that when he captured Meaux he slaughtered thirty Scotsmen whom he found there in cold blood, on the plea "that they bore arms against their own king." From the Chronicle of Monstrelet, we learn that the Duke of Clarence, who had been appointed Governor of Normandy, after being joined by Sir Thomas Beaufort and two Portuguese captains of Free Lances, marched on Easter-eve towards Anjou, to attack the Scots and Dauphinois, who were led by Lord Buchan, the Lord de la Fayette, who was Seneschal of the Bourbonnois, and the Vicomte de Narbonne, who so lately fought against the Duke of Bedford at Harfleur. Halting on his march to dine, he had barely sat down to table when he was informed by Andrea Fregosa, an Italian deserter, that the forces of the Earl of Buchan were encamped twenty-two miles eastward of Angers, at the small town of Baujé. On this the gallant Clarence sprang from table, and exclaimed, "Let us attack them they are ours! But let none follow me save the men-at-arms." There's a saying very old and true- Then with Scotland first begin."" Salisbury had orders to cross the Couanon by a ford, and turn the flank of the Scots if he could; while Clarence came on direct for the bridge with a glittering array of men-at-arms, all clad in magnificent armour. To prevent its passage being forced, its defence was entrusted to Sir Robert Stewart, of Railston, with only thirty archers; and just as the skirmish began, Sir Hew Kennedy, son of the Knight of Dunure, who was quartered in a church close by, rushed forth at the head of 100 Scots, who, in their hurry, had their armour only half-buckled; but who, by a flanking shower of arrows, drove the English back for a space. The Earl of Buchan now dashed forward, at the head of 200 chosen knights, and in the high narrow passage of the ancient bridge there ensued a dreadful, and to Clarence most fatal, combat. Inspired by the mutual hate and rancour that more than a hundred years of war engendered between them, the English and Scots, now meeting on French soil, fought with the fury of madmen. The former, says Buchanan, " took in it great disdain that they should be attacked by such an implacable enemy, not only at home, but beyond the seas; so they Bauje.] THE DEATH OF CLARENCE. fought stoutly, but none more so than Clarence himself, who was well known by his armour." 85 Scots, who continued the pursuit of the fugitives till night came on. Monstrelet has it that 3,000 English fell; Walter Bower says 1,700, while the French lost twelve, and the Scots only two, a disparity utterly incredible, as we find in the Chronicle of the former that the Dauphinois lost 1,100 men, among whom were Sir John Yvorin, Garin des Fontaines, and the good knight, Sir Charles le Bouteiller. On the other hand, Buchan, a powerful man, in the forty-second year of his age, fought with all the courage and resolution of his race; but Clarence, being distinguished by his fatal coronet, was the mark of every weapon. In the close mêlée of mounted men upon the bridge, he was almost instantly assailed by Sir John Carmichael, ancestor of the future Earls of Hyndford, who, with helmet Among the English there fell Gilbert de Umphre de Roos, of Hamlake; the Lord of Tancarville; and Sir John Grey, of Heton. Two hundred, with their horses and armour, fell into the hands of the Scots; among them were John, Earl of Somerset, whose sister, Jane Beaufort, was afterwards Queen-Consort of Scotland, and Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, son of Richard II.'s half sister. closed and lance in rest, spurred upon him with | ville, titular Earl of Angus, in Scotland; the Lord such fury that the tough ash shaft was broken to shivers upon the corselet of the prince, who at the same moment was wounded in the face by Sir John Swinton; then, just as he was falling from his high war-saddle, the Earl of Buchan dashed out his brains by one blow with an iron mace-Godscroft calls it "a steell hammer"-to which he had resorted after running him through the body with his lance. The fall of so gallant a prince filled the English knights and men-at-arms with greater fury, and they pressed in crowds upon the bridge to avenge him; in their haste and confusion, jostling and impeding each other in such a fashion that they were driven back, put to flight, and cut to pieces by the Buchan bestowed the dead body of Clarence on the Earl of Salisbury, and John, the bastard of Clarence. They bore it unmolested to Rouen, and thence to England, where it was interred at the feet of his father, in Canterbury Cathedral, as the duke had directed by a will written before the battle, but his coronet was retained by the Scots. Sir John |