I thought upon one pair of English legs

161

Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God,
That I do brag thus! This your air of France
Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent.
Go therefore, tell thy master here I am;
My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,
My army but a weak and sickly guard ;
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself and such another neighbour
Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.
Go, bid thy master well advise himself:

If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolour and so, Montjoy, fare
:

you well.
The sum of all our answer is but this:

We would not seek a battle, as we are;
Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it :

So tell your master.

Mont. I shall deliver so.

Thanks to your highness.

Glou. I hope they will not come upon us now.

171

[Exit.

K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. March to the bridge; it now draws toward night: Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,

180

And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt.

Scene VII.

The French camp, near Agincourt.

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures,
Orleans, Dauphin, with others.

Con. Tut! I have the best armour of the world.
Would it were day!

Orl. You have an excellent armour; but let my
horse have his due.

Con. It is the best horse of Europe.

Orl. Will it never be morning?

Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high con-
stable, you
talk of horse and armour ?
Orl. You are as well provided of both as any prince

in the world.
Dau. What a long night is this! I will not
change my horse with any that treads but on
four pasterns. Ça, ha! he bounds from the
earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval
volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu!
When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk:
he trots the air; the earth sings when he

ΙΟ

touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more

musical than the pipe of Hermes. Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg. Dau. And of the heat of the ginger.

It is a beast

for Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the
dull elements of earth and water never appear in
him, but only in patient stillness while his rider
mounts him he is indeed a horse; and all other
jades you may
call beasts.

Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and
excellent horse.

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

Orl. No more, cousin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from

20

30

the rising of the lark to the lodging of the
lamb, vary deserved praise on my palfrey it is
a theme as fluent as the sea: turn the sands into
eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for
them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason
on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on ;
and for the world, familiar to us and unknown, 40
to lay apart their particular functions and wonder

at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise, and
began thus: Wonder of nature,'-

Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's
mistress.

Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my courser, for my horse is my mistress.

Orl. Your mistress bears well.

Dau. Me well; which is the prescript praise and

perfection of a good and particular mistress. Con. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook your back.

Dau. So perhaps did yours.

Con. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait strossers.

Con. You have good judgement in horsemanship.

50

Dau. Be warned by me, then: they that ride so, 60

and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had

rather have my horse to my mistress.

Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jadė.

Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his

own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a

son propre vomisse

ment, et la truie lavée au bourbier:' thou
makest use of any thing.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or
any such proverb so little kin to the purpose.
Ram. My lord constable, the armour that I saw
in your tent to-night, are those stars or suns
upon it?

Con. Stars, my lord.

Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
Con. And yet my sky shall not want.

Dau. That may be, for you bear a many super-
fluously, and 'twere more honour some were

away.

Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

Dau. Would I were able to load him with his

desert! Will it never be day? I will trot
to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be paved
with English faces.

70

80

Con. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of my way: but I would it were morn- 90