among the baggage, and he soon saw a hostile force drawn out in that direction. At the same time, the third division of the French, which had been in full retreat, seemed to rally and raise their banners afresh. Henry knew that the Duke of Brittany and other chiefs, with reinforcements, were not far off; and believing himself about to be enveloped, he gave orders that every man should kill the prisoner or prisoners he had taken." As the ransom of captives of rank was one of the soldiers' best gains, many were unwilling to obey this mandate; but Henry sent two hundred archers, who knocked the French knights on the head without compunction. The extent of this horrible massacre is not known; but it appears that a great number of the noblest knights in France fell in consequence of what, after all, was a mistake.

The body seen in the rear were only some five or six hundred peasants who had entered Maisoncelles, and fallen upon the baggage in hope of obtaining plunder, and driving off some of the English horses; and what appeared a rallying in front was only a momentary pause, the third division continuing to gallop off the field harder than ever. As soon as Henry discovered his mistake, he gave orders to stop the carnage, and to look after the wounded.

Then, attended by his principal barons, he rode over the field, and sent out the heralds, as usual, to examine the coats-of-arms of the knights and princes that had fallen; and while his people were occupied in stripping the dead, he called to him the heralds of the King of France, the king-atarms, who was named Mountjoye, and with him several other heralds, both English and French, and said to them,"We have not made this slaughter, but the Almighty, as we believe, for the sins of France." And after this he asked them to whom the honour of the victory was due?— and then Mountjoye answered, "To the King of England: to him ought victory to be given, and not to the King of France." After this the king asked the name of the castle that he saw near to him; and they answered that it was called Azincourt. "Then," said Henry, "since all battles ought to be named after the nearest castle, let this battle bear henceforward and lastingly the name of the battle of * Chronicle A, as quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas.

Azincourt." This name the English have corrupted into Agincourt.

"Then call we this the field of Agincourt

Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus."+

never

The loss on the side of the French was frightful : had so many and such noble men fallen in one battle." The whole chivalry of France was cropped. Seven near relations of King Charles-the Duke of Brabant, the Count of Nevers, the Duke of Bar, his brother the Count of Marle, his other brother John, the Constable D'Albret, the Duke of Alençon -had all perished. Among the great lords, the Count of Dampierre, the Count of Vaudemont, the Lords of Rambure, Helly, and Verchin, and Messire Guichard Dauphin, met the same fate. In all there perished on the field eight thousand gentlemen, knights, or squires, including one hundred and twenty great lords that had each a banner of his own. Among the most distinguished prisoners, who were far less numerous than the slain of the same class, were the Duke of Orleans, the Count of Richemont, the Marshal Boucicault, the Duke of Bourbon, the Counts of Eu and Vendôme, and the Lords of Harcourt and Craon. The loss of the English is differently estimated; but at the highest account it was only sixteen hundred men, among whom were the Earl of Suffolk and the Duke of York.

The Duke of Orleans, who had been dragged out wounded from beneath a heap of the dead, was sorely afflicted. Henry went to console him. "How fare you, my cousin?" said he, "and why do you refuse to eat and drink?" The duke replied that he was determined to fast. "Not so: make good cheer," said the king, mildly; "if God has given me the grace to win this victory, I acknowledge that it is through no merits of mine own. I believe that God has willed that the French should be punished; and if what I have heard be true, no wonder at it; for they tell me that never were seen such a disorder, such a license of wickedness, such debauchery, such bad vices, as now reign in France. It is pitiful and horrible to hear it all, and certes the wrath of the Lord must have been awakened!"

Almost sinking under the weight of their booty, the English conquerors marched slowly on to Calais.

• Monstrelet.

Shakspeare, Henry V.

"Wagons and carts were laden till they crackt,
With arms and tents there taken in the field;
For want of carriage, on whose tops were packt
Ensigns, coat-armour, targets, spears, and shields:
Nor need they convoy, fearing to be sackt,

For all the country to King Henry yields."

Henry passed over to England, where he met with the most enthusiastic reception from all classes of the people, and found the Parliament ready and eager to vote him all the supplies he might require for the prosecution of the war. He soon returned to the continent, but nearly two years elapsed before he resumed military operations with any activity. At the end of that time, he was openly joined by the Duke of Burgundy with his army, and by all the Bourguignon chiefs.

Henry had the finest army that England had ever sent into France. There were 16,000 men-at-arms, from 14,000 to 16,000 archers, a body of artificers of all kinds, and another body of sappers and miners. The French court sent humbly to propose a peace or truce, but Henry would grant neither, except on the two following conditions:-that the Princess Catherine of France should become his wife; that he should be presently declared Regent of France, and successor to the throne upon the death of Charles.

Henry commenced operations by laying siege to the fortresses and castles of Normandy, which, being very numerous, and some of them very strong, occupied him a long space of time. It was not until the 16th day of January 1419, that he entered Rouen in triumph. Having in his front no French army at all capable of opposing him, and nothing to fear in his rear, he then struck into the heart of France, and imposed his will on the court and government.

Henry was acknowledged regent and successor; and on the 2nd of June 1420, he was married to the Princess Catherine in the Church of St. John at the city of Troyes. the old capital of Champagne.

"Oh, when shall English men
With such acts fill the pen;
Or England breed again
Such a King Harry?" +

* Drayton.

+ Ibid.

On the great festival of Whitsuntide, in the following year, the two courts of Henry and Charles made a solemn entry into their good city of Paris, and on that day King Henry and Queen Catherine kept their court, with great confluence of nobility and people, in the palace of the Louvre, where they sat in their royal robes, with their imperial crowns on their heads.

"Small time, but in that small, most greatly lived
This star of England!

• Shakspeare, Hen. V.

A.D. 1422-1513.

IN the losing war which soon followed the premature death of Henry V. (on the 31st of August 1422), battles were fought by the English quite as honourable to the national valour as that of Azincourt, and victories, over vastly superior numbers, were gained by the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Salisbury, Talbot, Fastolf, and others, whose names long remained words of fear and dread in the popular traditions of the French.

"Yes! worthy Talbot, thou didst so employ
The broken remnants of discatter'd powers,
That they might see it was but Destiny,

Not want of spirit, that lost us what was ours.”*

Among these victories may be named Crevant in 1423, Verneuil in 1424, Rouvrai in 1428, and Patay in 1429.

As all these battles were conducted on the same military principles, and resembled in all their incidents the battle of Azincourt, any description of them would be monotonous.

The bow was still to the English soldier what the musket and bayonet have been in modern times-the prime weapon, the victory-winner! Philip de Comines, writing half a century after the battle of Azincourt, says, "I am of opinion that the chiefest strength of an army in the day of battle consists of the archers; and in this I agree with the English, who, without dispute, are the best archers in the world.”

Under the infant son of Henry V., the court and government of England fell into disorders nearly equal to those which had recently existed in France. Fierce contests took place for the regency, and when Henry VI. attained his majority it became but too evident that he was incapable of

• Daniel, Historie of the Civil Warres.