Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art pro

tector,

And lookest to command the prince and realm.
Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe,
More than God or religious churchmen may.

Glos. Name not religion, for thou lovest the flesh;

And ne'er throughout the year to church thou goest, Except it be to pray against thy foes.

Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace.

Let's to the altar. Heralds, wait on us :-
Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms;

Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.

Posterity, await for wretched years,

When at their mothers' moisten'd eyes babes shall

suck;

Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears,
And none but women left to wail the dead.
Henry the fifth! thy ghost I invocate:
Prosper this realm; keep it from civil broils;
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens.
A far more glorious star thy soul will make,
Than Julius Cæsar, or bright-

Enter MESSENGER.

Mes. My honorable lords, health to you all! Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,

1 Nurse.

Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture:
Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans,
Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.

Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse?

Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns
Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death.
Glos. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up?

If Henry were recall'd to life again,

These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.

Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was used?

Mes. No treachery; but want of men and money. Among the soldiers this is muttered;—

That here you maintain several factions ;

And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and fought,
You are disputing of your generals.

One would have lingering wars, with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third man thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.
Awake, awake, English nobility!
Let not sloth dim your honors, new-begot:
Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England's coat one half is cut away.

Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth her1 flowing tides.

i. e. England's.

Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France :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, To weep their intermissive miseries.1

Enter another MESSENGER.

2 Mes. 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 crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?

Glos. 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 forward-
ness?

An army have I muster'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is overrun.

Enter a third MESSENGER.

3 Mes. My gracious lords, to add to your laments,

1 Their miseries, which have lately had a short intermission.

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 Mes. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown :

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
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, enraged he slew:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;

All the whole army stood agazed 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 Falstolfe had not play'd the coward:
He, being in the vaward, (placed 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.
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,
and ease,

For living idly here, in pomp

Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd.

3 Mes. 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.

Bed. His ransom there is none but I shall pay. I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne ; His crown shall be the ransom 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 Mes. So you had need; for Orleans is besieged; 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.