transports, and landed at Havre-de-Grace in Normandy, when he immediately laid siege to Harfleur, which surrendered in five weeks. Soon after which, the French, having assembled an army six times superior to the king's, challenged him to fight, and Henry accepted it, though the French army consisted of 150,000 men, and the English were now reduced to 9000.

The French, therefore, made rejoicings in their camp, as if the English were already defeated, and even sent to Henry to know what he would give for his ransom. To which he replied, that a few hours would shew whose care it would be to make that provision.

The English, though fatigued with their march, and almost starved for want of food, were inspired by the example of their brave king, and resolved to conquer or die. In this situation, Henry sent David Gam, a Welsh captain, to reconnoitre the enemy, who bravely reported, that "there were enow to be killed, enow to be taken prisoners, and enow to run away."

The king was encamped, October 25th, 1415, on a plain near Agincourt, and having drawn up his soldiers in two lines, he disposed of them to so much advantage, and behaved with such extraordinary conduct and courage, that, by the blessing of divine Providence, whose assistance he publicly and solemnly implored before the action, by offering up prayers, and exhorting his troops to put all their trust in God, he gained a complete victory, after having been several times knocked down, and in the most imminent danger

of losing his life. The English killed upwards of 10,000 men, and took more prisoners than they had men in the army.

Henry, who was as great a politician as a warrior, made such alliances, and divided the French among themselves so effectually, that he forced the queen of France, whose husband Charles VI. was a lunatic, to agree to his marrying her daughter, the princess Catharine, to disinherit the Dauphin, and to declare Henry regent of France during her husband's life, and him and his issue successors to the French monarchy, which must at this time have been exterminated, had not the Scots furnished the Dauphin with vast supplies, and preserved the French crown for his head. Henry, however, made a triumphant entry into Paris, where the Dauphin was proscribed; and after receiving the fealty of the French nobility, he returned to England to levy a force which might crush the Dauphin and the Scotch auxiliaries. He probably would have *been successful, had he not died of a pleuritic disorder, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the tenth of his reign.

This prince possessed many eminent virtues, and his abilities were equally conspicuous in the cabinet, and in the field. The boldness of his plans were not less remarkable, than his personal valor in conducting them. He had the talent of attaching his friends by affability, and of gaining his enemies by address and clemency. Yet his reign was rather splendid than profitable. The treasures of the nation were lavished on conquests, which even though they could have been

maintained, would have proved injurious to the nation. Nevertheless, he died fortunate, by falling in the midst of his victories, and leaving his subjects in the very height of his reputation.

The English triumphs, at this time in France, produced scarce any good effects at home. As they grew warlike, they became savage; and panting after foreign possessions, forgot the arts of cultivating those that lie nearer home.

Our language, instead of improving, was more neglected than before. Langland and Chaucer had begun to profit it, and enrich it with new and elegant constructions: but it was now seen to relapse into its former rudeness, and no poet or historian of note was born in this tempestuous period.

CHAP. XL.

Of Joan of Arc, or the Maid of Orleans.

NOTHING could be more deplorable than the situation of Charles VII. on assuming his title to the crown of France. The English were masters of almost all the country; and Henry VI. though yet but an infant, was solemnly invested with regal power by legates from Paris. The duke of Bedford was at the head of a numerous army, in the heart of the kingdom, ready to oppose every insurrection, while the duke of Burgundy, who had entered into a firm confederacy with him, still remained stedfast, and

seconded his claims. The Earl of Salisbury had invested Orleans, and when it was near being surrendered, a country girl named Joan of Arc, who, in the station of a servant to a small inn, had been accustomed to tend the horses of the guests, undertook to deliver France from the English. This girl, inflamed with the frequent accounts of the rencounters at the siege of Orleans, and affected with the distresses of her country, but more particularly with those of the youthful monarch, whose gallantry made him the idol of the softer sex, was seized with the wild desire of bringing relief to her sovereign, in his present unhappy circumstances. Her inexperienced mind, working day and night on this favorite object, mistook the impulses of passion for heavenly inspirations; and she fancied she saw visions, and heard voices exhorting her to re-establish the throne of France, and expel the foreign invaders.

Having got herself introduced to the king, she offered, in the name of the Supreme Creator, to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheims to be there crowned and anointed; and she demanded, as the instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, which was kept in the church of St. Catharine of Fierbois. The more the king and his ministers were determined to give in to the illusion, the more scruples they pretended. An assembly of grave doctors and theologians were appointed to examine Joan's mission, and pronounced it undoubted and supernatural. The parliament also attested her inspiration; and a jury of matrons declared her an unspotted virgin. Her requests

I

were now granted. She was armed cap-a-pee, mounted on horse-back, and shewn in that martial habiliment to the whole people. Her dexterity in managing her steed, though acquired in her former station, was regarded as a fresh proof of her mission. Her former occupation was denied. She was converted into a shepherdess, an employment more agreeable to the imagination, than that of an ostler wench. Ten years were subtracted from her age, in order to excite still more admiration, and she was received with the loudest acclamations by the people of all ranks. A ray of hope began to break through that of despair, in which the minds of men were involved. Heaven had now declared itself in favor of France, and laid bare its outstretched arm to take vengeance on her invaders.

CHAP. XLI.

The Maid of Orleans obliges the English to raise the Siege of that City, and conducts Charles to Rheims in order to be Crowned.

THE English at first affected to speak with derision of the Maid and her heavenly commission; but their imagination was secretly struck with the strong persuasion which prevailed in all around them. They found their courage daunted by degrees, and thence began to infer a divine judgment hanging over them. A silent astonishment reigned among the troops, former