WH KING HENRY V. 7HEN the wild Prince Hal, companion of rogues and cut-purses, ascended the throne as King Henry the Fifth of England, wisdom, like an angel, came and whipped the offending Adam out of him. Never was such a sudden scholar made; never was reformation so complete. The whole nation was blessed in the change, for the young king was found to be master of the state craft; he could reason in divinity with his prelates, he was wise in policy, and he had at command the whole art of war. It was the wonder of his subjects how he should have gained such knowledge, for his time had been spent in vain courses and his years were still unripe. But the strawberry grows underneath the nettle, and so, it appeared, had the prince obscured his true character under the veil of wildness. Hence it was that when he became king he sagely remembered his father's advice to "busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels,” and began to make preparations for invading France, the crown of which he claimed to inherit from his great III.-m 177 |