was impossible for him to proceed on his march without coming to an engagement. No situation could be more unfavourable than that in which he found himself. His army was wasted with disease; the spirits of the soldiers worn down with fatigue, destitute of provisions, and discouraged by their retreat. Their whole body amounted to but nine thousand men ; and these were to sustain the shock of an enemy near ten times their number, headed by expert generals, and plentifully supplied with provisions. As the enemy were so much superior, he drew up his army on a narrow ground between two woods, which guarded each flank; and he patiently expected, in that position, the attack of the enemy. D'Albert, the constable of France, was at the head of one army; and Henry himself, with Edward duke of York, commanded the other. For a time both armies, as if afraid to begin, kept silently gazing at each other, neither willing to break their ranks by making the onset; which Henry perceiving, with a cheerful countenance, cried out, "My friends, since they will not begin, it is ours to set them the example; come on, and the Blessed Trinity be our protection." Upon this, the whole army set forward with a shout, while the French still waited their approach with intrepidity. The English archers, who had long been famous for their great skill, first discharged a shower of arrows, three feet long, which did great execution. The French cavalry advancing to repel these, two hundred bowmen, who lay till then concealed, rising on a sudden, let fly among them, and produced such a confusion, that the archers threw down their arrows, and, rushing in, fell upon them sword in hand. The French at first repulsed the assailants, who were enfeebled by disease; but they soon made up the defect by their valour; and resolving to conquer or die, burst in upon the enemy with such impetuosity, that the French were soon obliged to give way.

They were overthrown in every part of the field; thei numbers being crowded into a very narrow space, were inca pable of either flying or making any resistance; so that they covered the ground with heaps of slain. After all appearance of opposition was over, there was heard an alarm from behind, which proceeded from a number of peasants, who had fallen upon the English baggage, and were putting those who guarded it to the sword. Henry now seeing the enemy on all sides of him, began to entertain apprehensions from his prisoners, the number of whom exceeded even that of his army. He thought it necessary, therefore, to issue general orders for putting them to death: but, on the discovery of the certainty of his victory

E

he stopped the slaughter, and was still able to save a great number. This severity tarnished the glory which his victory would otherwise have acquired; but all the heroism of that age is tinctured with barbarity. In this battle the French lost ten thousand men, and fourteen thousand prisoners: the English only forty men in all. This memorable battle was fought on the 15th October, 1415.

France was at that time in a wretched situation; the whole kingdom appeared as one vast theatre of crimes, murders, injustice, and devastation. The duke of Orleans was assassinated by the duke of Burgundy, and the duke of Burgundy, in his turn, fell by the treachery of the Dauphin.

A state of imbecility into which Charles had fallen, made him passive in every transaction; and Henry, at last, by conquest and negotiation, caused himself to be elected heir to the crown. The principal articles of this treaty were, that Henry should espouse the princess Catharine, daughter to the king of France; that king Charles should enjoy the title and dignity for life, but that Henry should be declared heir to the crown, and should be entrusted with the present administration of the government; that France and England should for ever be united under one king, but should still retain their respective laws and privileges.

In consequence of this, while Henry was every where victorious, he fixed his residence at Paris; and, while Charles had but a small court, he was attended with a very magnificent On Whit-Sunday the two kings and their two queens, with crowns on their heads, dined together in public; Charles receiving apparent homage, but Henry commanding with absolute authority.

one.

Henry, at that time, when his glory had nearly reached its summit, and both crowns were just devolved upon him, was seized with a fistula; a disorder, which, from the unskilfulness of the physicians of the times, soon became mortal. He expired with the same intrepidity with which he had lived, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and in the tenth of his reign.

EXERCISES.

In what years did the reign of Henry V. commence and terminate? Whom did he dismiss from his presence on his accession? Whom did he take into his friendship? How did he treat Sir William Gascoigne? What heresy (as it was falsely called) began to prevail? Relate the fate of Sir John Oldcastle. What country did Henry V. invade? Why did he repent of that measure? Where did the French and the English armics

meet? Who began the engagement? Who gained the victory, and what act of barbarity tarnished the glory of the Conqueror? What numbers fell on both sides? In what year was the battle of Agincourt fought? Describe the situation of France. What noblemen were murdered? On what conditions was Henry V. declared heir to the crown of France? In what year of his life and reign did he die?

THE duke of Bedford, one of the most accomplished princes of the age, and equally experienced both in the cabinet and the field, was appointed, by parliament, protector of England, defender of the church, and first counsellor to the king, during his minority, as he was not yet a year old; and as France was the great object that engrossed all consideration, he attempted to exert the efforts of the nation upon the Continent with all his vigour.

*

A new revolution was produced in that kingdom, by means apparently the most unlikely to be attended with success. In the village of Domreni, near Vaucoleurs, on the borders of Lorrain, there lived a country girl, about twenty-seven years of age, called Joan of Arc. This girl had been a servant at a small inn; and in that humble station had submitted to those

• Domphre in the parish of Greux. Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. ix. p. 92.

hardy employments which fit the body for the fatigues of war. She was of an irreproachable life, and had hitherto testified none of those enterprising qualities which displayed themselves soon after. Her mind, however, brooding with melancholy stedfastness upon the miserable situation of her country, began to feel several impulses which she was willing to mistake for the inspirations of Heaven. Convinced of the reality of her own admonitions, she had recourse to one Baudricourt, governor of Vaucoleurs, and informed him of her destination by Heaven to free her native country from its fierce invaders. Baudricourt treated her at first with some neglect; but her importunities at length prevailed; and willing to make a trial of her pretensions, he gave her some attendants, who conducted her to the French court, which at that time resided at Chi

non.

The French court were probably sensible of the weakness of her pretensions; but they were willing to make use of every artifice to support their declining fortunes. It was therefore given out, that Joan was actually inspired; that she was able to discover the king among the number of his courtiers, although he had laid aside all the distinctions of his authority; that she had told him some secrets, which were only known to himself; and that she had demanded and minutely described a sword in the church of St. Catharine de Firebois, which she had never seen. In this manner the minds of the vulgar being prepared for her appearance, she was armed cap-à-pee, mounted on a charger, and shown in that martial dress to the people. She was then brought before the doctors of the university; and they, tinctured with the credulity of the times, or willing to second the imposture, declared that she had actually received her commission from above.

When the preparations for her mission were completely blazoned, their next aim was to send her against the enemy. The English were at that time besieging the city of Orleans, the last resource of Charles, and every thing promised them a speedy surrender. Joan undertook to raise the siege; and to render herself still more remarkable, girded herself with the miraculous sword, of which she had before such extraordinary notices. Thus equipped, she ordered all the soldiers to confess themselves before they set out; she displayed in her hand a consecrated banner, and assured the troops of certain success. Such confidence on her side soon raised the spirits of the French army; and even the English, who pretended to despise her efforts, felt themselves secretly influenced with the terrors

of her mission, and, relaxing in their endeavours, the siege was raised with great precipitation.

From being attacked, the French now in turn became the aggressors. One victory followed another, and at length the French king was solemnly crowned at Rheims, which was what Joan had promised should come to pass.

A tide of successes followed the performance of this solemnity; but Joan having thrown herself into the city of Compeigne with a body of troops which was then besieging by the duke of Burgundy, she was taken prisoner in a sally which she headed against the enemy, the governor shutting the gates behind.

The duke of Bedford was no sooner informed of her being taken, than he purchased her for £10,000 from the Earl of Ligny, to whom she had been delivered by the bastard of Vendome who had made her his prisoner, and ordered her to be committed to close confinement. The credulity of both nations was at that time so great, that nothing was too absurd to gain belief which coincided with their passions. As Joan, but a little before, from her successes, was regarded as a saint, she was now, upon her captivity, considered as a sorceress, forsaken by the demon who had granted her a fallacious and temporary assistance; and accordingly, being tried at Rouen, she was found guilty of heresy and witchcraft, and sentenced to be burnt alive, which was executed accordingly, with the most ignorant malignity, 30th May 1431.

From this period the English affairs became totally irretriev able. The city of Paris returned once more to a sense of its duty. Thus ground was continually, though slowly, gained by the French. And in the lapse of a few years Calais alone remained of all the conquests which had been made in France; and this was but a small compensation for the blood and treasure which had been lavished in that country, and which only served to gratify ambition with transient applause.

But the incapacity of Henry began to appear in a fuller light; and foreign war being now extinguished, the people began to prepare for the horrors of intestine strife. In this period of calamity, a new interest was revived, which had lain dormant in the times of prosperity and triumph. Richard, duke of York, was descended, by the mother's side, from Lionel, one of the sons of Edward the Third; whereas the reigning king was descended from John of Gaunt, a younger son of the same monarch; Richard, therefore, stood plainly in succession before Henry; and he began to think the weakness and unpopularity of the present reign a favourable moment for ambition. The