K. Henry.
I was not angry since I came to France,
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald,

Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill.
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field, they do offend our sight;
If they'll do neither, we will come to them;
And make them sker away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
* ^noteBesides, we'll cut the throats of those we have;
And not a man of them, that we shall take,
Shall taste our mercy. Go, and tell them so. Enter Mountjoy.

Exe.
Here comes the herald of the French, my Liege.

Glou.
His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.

K. Henry.
How now, what means their herald?
Know'st thou not,
That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom?
Com'st thou again for ransom?

Mount.
No, great King:
I come to thee for charitable licence
That we may wander o'er this bloody field,
To book our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men;
For many of our Princes, woe, the while!
Lie drown'd, and soak'd in mercenary blood;
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of Princes, while their wounded steeds
Fret fet-lock deep in gore, and with wild rage
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,

Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great King,
To view the field in safety, and dispose
Of their dead bodies.

K. Henry.
I tell thee truly, herald,
I know not, if the day be ours or no;
For yet a many of your horsemen peer,
And gallop o'er the field.

Mount.
The day is yours.

K. Henry.
Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call'd, that stands hard by?

Mount.
They call it Agincourt.

K. Henry.
Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu.

Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your Majesty, and your great uncle Edward the plack Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France.

K. Henry.

They did, Fluellen.

Flu.

Your Majesty says very true. If your Majesties is remember'd of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where Leeks did grow, wearing Leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your Majesty knows to this hour is an honourable padge of the service; and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the Leek upon St. Tavee's day.

K. Henry.
I wear it for a memorable honour:
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

Flu.

All the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that; God pless and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace and his majesty too.

K. Henry.

Thanks, good my countryman.

Flu.

By Jeshu, I am your Majesty's countryman, I care not who know it; I will confess it to all the orld; I need not be ashamed of your Majesty, praised be God, so long as your Majesty is an honest man.

K. Henry.
God keep me so!

Enter Williams.
Our heralds go with him. [Exeunt Heralds, with Mountjoy.
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
On both our parts.—Call yonder fellow hither.

Previous section

Next section