For now sits expectation in the air;

And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point,
With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,
Promis'd to Harry and his followers.
The French, advis'd by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,

Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.

O England model to thy inward greatness,

Like little body with a mighty heart,

What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural !

But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out

A nest of hollow bosoms which he fills

With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,—
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,-
Have, for the gilt of France (O guilt, indeed!)
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;

And by their hands this grace of kings must die
(If hell and treason hold their promises),

Ere he take ship for France.

The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;

The king is set from London; and the scene

Is now transported to Southampton :

SCENE 3.

THE BEACH AT SOUTHAMPTON.

THE ENGLISH FLEET AT ANCHOR.A

EXETER, BEDFORD, WESTMORELAND, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, Lords, Soldiers, and Attendants discovered.

AThe King had a vessel 186 feet in length from the onmost end of the stern onto the post behind. The stern was in height 96 feet, and the keel in length 112 feet. The topcassles were not the forecassles, but were castellated enclosures at the mast heads, in which the pages to the officers were stationed during an engagement, in order to annoy the enemy with darts and other missiles. Vide Illuminations to Froissart.

Bed. 'Fore Heaven, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors. A
Ere. They shall be apprehended by and by.

West. How smooth and even they do bear themselves ! As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend,

Some had three and others only two masts, with short topmasts, and a "forestage or "forecassle," consisting of a raised platform or stage, which obtained the name of castle from its containing soldiers, and probably from its having bulwarks.-Enc. Britt.

Tyler holds the opinion that Henry of Monmouth should be regarded as the founder of the British Navy. Sir Henry Ellis, in his publication, suggests the same view, and many facts tend to confirm and illustrate it.

The Bell Rolls record the payment of a pension, which bears testimony to the interest taken by Henry in his infant navy, and to the kindness with which he rewarded those who had faithfully served him. The pension is stated to have been given to John Hoggekyns, master carpenter, of special grace, because by long working at the ships his body was much shaken and worsted.

When he sailed from Southampton, in his first expedition to France, he went on board his own good ship "The Trinity."

The high importance which Henry attached to these rising bulwarks of his country shows itself in various ways: in none more curious and striking than (a fact, it is presumed, new to history) in the solemn religious ceremony with which they were consecrated before he committed them to the mighty waters. One of the highest order of the Christian ministry was employed, and similar devotions were performed at the dedication of one of the royal "great ships" as we should find in the consecration of a cathedral. They were called also by some of the holiest of all names ever uttered by Christians. Thus at the completion of the good ship "The Gracedieu," at Southampton, the venerable father in Christ, the Bishop of Bangor, was commissioned by the King's council to proceed from London, at the public expense, to consecrate it.-Tyler.

AHis Men shipped, and the King himself ready to go on board: a conspiracy against his life is discovered, forged by Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry Lord Scroope of Masham, the Lord Treasurer, and Sir Thomas Grey of Northumberland, who, being suborned by the French for a Million of Gold, as upon their apprehension they confessed (though their indictment contains other matter), were all three put to death! which was no sooner performed but that the Wind blowing fair, King Henry weighs Anchor, and with a Fleet of 160 ships sets sail on Lady Day, An. 1414.-Sandford's Geneological History of the Kings.

By interception which they dream not of.B

Exe. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,--That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell

His sovereign's life to death and treachery !

Enter the KING, attended.

K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not, that the powers we bear with us
Will cut their passage through the force of France;
Doing the execution, and the act,

For which we have in head assembled them?

с

Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. K. Hen. I doubt not that since we are well persuaded, We carry not a heart with us from hence

That grows not in a fair consent with ours;

Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd Than is your majesty; there's not, I think, a subject That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness

Under the sweet shade of your government.

Grey. True those that were your father's enemies
Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you
With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

K. Hen. We judge no less.-Uncle of Exeter
Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
That rail'd against our person; we consider
It was excess of wine that set him on ;
And, on our more advice, we pardon him.

Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security :
Let him be punished, sovereign; lest example
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

BIt is recorded that though this plot was solely to place the young Earl of March on the throne, he himself informed the King of its existence, so attached was he to the person of Henry, who had treated him with unusual magnanimity.

CHenry, Lord Scroop of Masham, was third husband of Joan, Duchess of York (she had four), mother-in-law of Richard, Earl of Cambridge. PRichard, earl of Cambridge, was Richard de Coninsbury, younger son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. He was father of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward the Fourth.

K. Hen. O, let us yet be merciful.

Cum. So may your highness, and yet punish too.

Grey. Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life, After the taste of much correction.

K. Hen. Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch.

If little faults proceeding on distemper,

Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested,
Appear before us?-We'll yet enlarge that man,

Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care
And tender preservation of our person,

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes;
Who are the late commissioners?

Cam. I one, my lord;

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

Scroop. So did you me, my liege.

Grey. And I, my royal sovereign.

K. Hen. Then, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is yours; There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:

Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.

My Lord of Westmoreland and uncle Exeter,

We will aboard to-night.-Why, how now, gentlemen ?

What see you in those papers, that you lose

So much complexion?-Look ye, how they change!
Their cheeks are paper.-Why, what read you there,
That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood

Out of appearance?

Cam.

I do confess my fault;

And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

Grey, Scroop. To which we all appeal.

K. Hen. The mercy that was quick in us but late,

By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd :

You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.

See you, myprinces, and my noble peers,

These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge here,-
You know how apt our love was, to accord

To furnish him with all appertinents

Belonging to his honour; and this man

Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd,

And sworn unto the practices of France,
To kill us here in Hampton: to the which,
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But O!
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop; thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!
Thou, that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,
Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use;
May it be possible, that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil,
That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black from white, my eye will scarcely see it.
If that same demon, that hath gull'd thee thus,
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar back,
And tell the legions, I can never win

A soul so easy as that Englishman's.

O, how hast thou with jealousy infected

The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
Why, so didst thou: Seem they grave and learned?
Why, so didst thou: Come they of noble family?
Why, so didst thou: Seem they religious?
Why, so didst thou: I will weep for thee

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like

Another fall of man.-Their faults are open.

Arrest them to the answer of the law;

And God acquit them of their practices!

Exe. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry lord Scroop of Masham.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland.

Scroop. Our purposes Heaven justly hath discover'd;

And I repent my fault more than my death;

Which I beseech your highness to forgive,

Although my body pay the price of it.

Cam. For me, the gold of France did not seduce;

The confession of the Earl of Cambridge, and his supplication for mercy in his own hand writing, are in the British Museum.