Hot.
Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking truth,
In this fine age, were not thought flattery ^note,
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general current through the world.
By heaven, ^note I cannot flatter; I defy
The tongues ^note of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.

Dou.
Thou art the king of honour:
No man so potent breaths upon the ground,
But I will beard him. Enter a Messenger, with Letters.

Hot.
Do so, and 'tis well:—
What letters hast thou ^note there?—I can but thank you.

Mes.
These &dagger2; letters, my good lord, come from your father.

Hot.
Letters from him! why comes he not himself?

Mes.
He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick.

Hot.
'Zounds ^note! how has he the ^note leisure to be sick,
In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?

Mes.
His letters bear ^note his mind, ^{note note} not I, my lord.14Q0646 [Hot-spur opens them, and reads.

Wor.
I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?

Mes.
He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
And at the time of my departure thence,
He was much fear'd by his physicians ^note.

Wor.
I would, the state of time ^note had first been whole,
Ere he by sickness had been visited;
His health ^note was never better worth than now.

Hot.
Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprize;
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.—
He writes me here,—that inward sickness holds him;
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet,
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust
On any soul remov'd, but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,—
That with our small conjunction we should on,
To see how fortune is dispos'd to us:
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now;
Because the king is certainly possest
Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

Wor.
Your father's sickness is a maim to us.

Hot.
A perilous gash, a very limb lopt off:—
And yet, in faith, it's not; his present want
Seems more than we shall find it: Were it good,
To set the exact wealth of all our states
All at one cast? to set so rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good: for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope;
The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.

Dou.
'Faith, and so we should;
Where now remains a sweet reversion;
And we may boldly spend, upon the hope
Of what is ^note to come in:
A comfort of retirement lives in this.

Hot.
A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
If that the devil and mischance look big
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor.
But yet, I would your father had been here.
The quality and hair ^note of our attempt
Brooks no division: It will ^note be thought
By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and meer dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence;
And think, how such an apprehension
May turn the tide of fearful faction,
And breed a kind of question in our cause:
For, well you know, we of the offending ^note side
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement;
And stop all sight-holes, every loop, from whence
The eye of reason may pry in upon us:
This absence of your father's ^note draws a curtain,
That shews the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt of.

Hot.
Come, you strain too far.
I, rather, of his absence make this use;—
It lends a lustre, a more great opinion,
A larger dare to our ^note great enterprize,
Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a head
To push against the kingdom ^note; with his help,
We shall o'er-turn ^note it topsy-turvy down.

Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

Dou.
As heart can think: there is not such a word
Spoke of in Scotland, as this term ^note of fear. Enter Sir Richard Vernon.

Hot.
My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul.

Ver.
Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord.
The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him ^note, prince John.

Hot.
No harm: What more?

Ver.
And further, I have learn'd,—
The king himself in person is set ^note forth ^note,
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
With strong and mighty preparation.

Hot.
He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales,
And his comrádes, that daft the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Ver.
All furnish'd,14Q0647 all in arms,
All plum'd ^note like estridges; and with the wind
Bating, ^note like eagles having lately bath'd:
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer.14Q0648
I saw young Harry,—with his beaver up, ^note
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,—
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vault ^note with such an ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropt ^note down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

Hot.
No more, no more; worse than the sun in March,

This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoaky war,
All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar ^note sit,
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire,
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
And yet not ours:—Come, let me take my ^note horse,
Who is to bear me, like a thunder-bolt,
Against the bosom of the prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry shall ^note,14Q0649 hot horse to horse;
Meet, and ne'er part, 'till one drop down a corse.
O, that Glendower were come!

Ver.
There is more news:
I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
He cannot draw ^note his power this fourteen days.

Dou.
That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. ^note

Wor.
Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.

Hot.
What may the king's whole battle reach unto?

Ver.
To thirty thousand.

Hot.
Forty let it be;
My father and Glendower being both away,
The powers ^note of us may serve so great a day.
Come, let us take a ^note muster speedily:
Dooms-day is near; die all, die merrily.

Dou.
Talk not of dying; I am out of fear
Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year. [Exeunt.

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