Than the rich-jewell'd coffer of Darius,5
Transported shall be at high festivals
Before the Kings and Queens of France.
No longer on Saint Denis will we cry,

But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.
Come in, and let us banquet royally,

After this golden day of victory.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Enter, to the gate, a French Sergeant and two Sentinels.

Serg. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant :

If any noise or soldier you perceive

Near to the walls, by some apparent sign

Let us have knowledge at the court-of-guard.1

I Sent. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit Sergeant.] - Thus

are poor servitors

When others sleep upon their quiet beds -
Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.
Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and Forces, with scaling-
ladders, their drums beating a dead march.

Tal. Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,2

5 In what price the noble poems of Homer were holden by Alexander the Great, insomuch that everie night they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried in the rich jewel coffer of Darius, lately before vanquished by him. — PUTTENHAM'S Arte of English Poesie, 1589.

1 In the military language of our time, "the court-of-guard" is called the head-quarters of the guard; that is, the place where the guard musters. 2 The present Duke of Burgundy is known in history as Philip the Good." He succeeded to the title in 1419, at which time his father was murdered. That treacherous assassination had the effect of knitting Philip

By whose approach the regions of Artois,
Walloon, and Picardy are friends to us, -
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,3
Having all day caroused and banqueted:
Embrace we, then, this opportunity,

As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
Contrived by art and baleful sorcery.

Bed. Coward of France! how much he wrongs his fame, Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,

To join with witches and the help of Hell!

Bur. Traitors have never other company.

But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure?
Tal. A maid, they say.

Bed.

A maid! and be so martial!

Bur. Pray God she prove not masculine ere long;

If underneath the standard of the French

She carry armour, as she hath begun.

Tal. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits: God is our fortress, in whose conquering name

Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.

Bed. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee.
Tal. Not all together: better far, I guess,

in close alliance with England, which was further strengthened and prolonged by the marriage of Bedford with his sister in 1423. Her death, which occurred in 1432, greatly loosened the bonds between her brother and the regent. At length, under the mediation of the Pope, a congress of English, French, and Burgundian ambassadors was held at Arras in 1435, which ended in a reconciliation of Burgundy and the Dauphin, who had then succeeded to the crown of France. The Poet represents the detaching of Burgundy from England to have been brought about by Joan of Arc; for which the only historical ground is, that Joan wrote a letter to the duke urging upon him the course which he afterwards took.

8 Secure is careless or negligent, like the Latin securus.

38, note 16.

་་

See vol. vi. page

4 To quittance is to requite or retort. So in Greene's Never too late:

"Shall I be so ingrate as to quittance affection with fraude?"

That we do make our entrance several ways;
That, if it chance the one of us do fail,
The other yet may rise against their force.
Bed. Agreed: I'll to yond corner.
Bur.

I to this.

Tal. And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.
Now, Salisbury, for thee, and for the right
Of English Henry, shall this night appear
How much in duty I am bound to both.

[The English scale the walls, crying Saint George!
a Talbot! and all enter the town.

Sent. Arm! arm! the enemy doth make assault !

The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, the Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON, and REIGNIER, half ready and half unready.

Alen. How now, my lords! what, all unready 5 so?
Bast. Unready! ay, and glad we 'scaped so well.
Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
Hearing alarums at our chamber-doors.

Alen. Of all exploits since first I follow'd arms,

Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise

More venturous or desperate than this.

Bast. I think this Talbot be a fiend of Hell.

Reig. If not of Hell, the Heavens, sure, favour him.
Alen. Here cometh Charles: I marvel how he sped.
Bast. Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.

Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE.

Char. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,

5 Unready is undressed. So in Chapman's Monsieur D'Olive, 1606: "You are not going to bed; I see you are not yet unready." And in Cotgrave: Deshabiller, to unclothe, make unready, put or take off clothes."

Make us partakers of a little gain,

That now our loss might be ten times so much?

Puc. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
At all times will you have my power alike?
Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail,

Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?
Improvident soldiers! had your watch been good,
This sudden mischief never could have fall'n.
Char. Duke of Alençon, this was your default,
That, being captain of the watch to-night,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.

Alen. Had all your quarters been as safely kept
As that whereof I had the government,

We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
Bast. Mine was secure.

Reig.

And so was mine, my lord.

Char. And, for myself, most part of all this night, Within her quarter and mine own precinct

I was employ'd in passing to and fro,

About relieving of the sentinels :

Then how or which way should they first break in?
Puc. Question, my lords, no further of the case,
How or which way: 'tis sure they found some place
But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
And now there rests no other shift but this,
To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispersed,
And lay new platforms 6 to endamage them.

Alarums. Enter an English Soldier, crying A Talbot! a
Talbot! They fly, leaving their clothes behind.

Sold. I'll be so bold to take what they have left.

6 Platforms for plans or schemes. So the plot of a play was formerly called the platform. Sometimes applied to systems of theology; as, “the Geneva platform," and "the Saybrook platform."

The cry
of Talbot serves me for a sword;
For I have loaden me with many spoils,

Using no other weapon but his name.

[Exit.

Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, a Captain, and others.

Bed. The day begins to break, and night is fled,
Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the Earth.
Here sound retreat, and cease our hot pursuit.

[Retreat sounded.

Tal. Bring forth the body of old Salisbury,
And here advance it in the market-place,
The middle centre of this cursèd town.
Now have I paid my vow unto his soul;
For every drop of blood was drawn from him,
There hath at least five Frenchmen died to-night.
And, that hereafter ages may behold
What ruin happen'd in revenge of him,

Within their chiefest temple I'll erect
A tomb, wherein his corpse shall be interr'd:
Upon the which, that every one may read,
Shall be engraved the sack of Orleans,
The treacherous manner of his mournful death,
And what a terror he had been to France.
But, lords, in all our bloody massacre,

I muse1 we met not with the Dauphin's Grace,
His new-come champion, virtuous Joan of Arc,
Nor any of his false confederates.

Bed. 'Tis thought, Lord Talbot, when the fight began, Roused on the sudden from their drowsy beds,

They did, amongst the troops of armèd men,

1 To muse, in one of its old senses, is to wonder or marvel.