The First Part Of Henry The Sixth

1 Enter a Sergeant of a band, with two Sentinels.
2 SERGEANT.
3 Sirs, take your places and be vigilant.
4 If any noise or soldier you perceive
5 Near to the walls, by some apparent sign
6 Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.
7 FIRST SENTINEL.
8 Sergeant, you shall.
9 [_Exit Sergeant._]
10 Thus are poor servitors,
11 When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
12 Constrain’d to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.
13 Enter Talbot, Bedford, Burgundy, and forces, with scaling-ladders.
14 TALBOT.
15 Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
16 By whose approach the regions of Artois,
17 Walloon and Picardy are friends to us,
18 This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
19 Having all day caroused and banqueted.
20 Embrace we then this opportunity,
21 As fitting best to quittance their deceit
22 Contriv’d by art and baleful sorcery.
23 BEDFORD.
24 Coward of France, how much he wrongs his fame,
25 Despairing of his own arm’s fortitude,
26 To join with witches and the help of hell!
27 BURGUNDY.
28 Traitors have never other company.
29 But what’s that Pucelle whom they term so pure?
30 TALBOT.
31 A maid, they say.
32 BEDFORD.
33 A maid! And be so martial!
34 BURGUNDY.
35 Pray God she prove not masculine ere long,
36 If underneath the standard of the French
37 She carry armour as she hath begun.
38 TALBOT.
39 Well, let them practice and converse with spirits.
40 God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
41 Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.
42 BEDFORD.
43 Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee.
44 TALBOT.
45 Not all together. Better far, I guess,
46 That we do make our entrance several ways,
47 That if it chance the one of us do fail,
48 The other yet may rise against their force.
49 BEDFORD.
50 Agreed. I’ll to yond corner.
51 BURGUNDY.
52 And I to this.
53 TALBOT.
54 And here will Talbot mount, or make his grave.
55 Now, Salisbury, for thee, and for the right
56 Of English Henry, shall this night appear
57 How much in duty I am bound to both.
58 SENTINEL.
59 Arm! Arm! The enemy doth make assault!
60 [_Cry: “St George,” “A Talbot!”_]
61 The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter several ways the
62 Bastard of Orleans, Alençon and Reignier, half ready and half unready.
63 ALENÇON.
64 How now, my lords? What, all unready so?
65 BASTARD.
66 Unready! Ay, and glad we ’scap’d so well.
67 REIGNIER.
68 ’Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,
69 Hearing alarums at our chamber-doors.
70 ALENÇON.
71 Of all exploits since first I follow’d arms
72 Ne’er heard I of a warlike enterprise
73 More venturous or desperate than this.
74 BASTARD.
75 I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
76 REIGNIER.
77 If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him.
78 ALENÇON.
79 Here cometh Charles. I marvel how he sped.
80 Enter Charles and La Pucelle.
81 BASTARD.
82 Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.
83 CHARLES.
84 Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?
85 Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
86 Make us partakers of a little gain,
87 That now our loss might be ten times so much?
88 PUCELLE.
89 Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?
90 At all times will you have my power alike?
91 Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail,
92 Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?
93 Improvident soldiers, had your watch been good,
94 This sudden mischief never could have fall’n.
95 CHARLES.
96 Duke of Alençon, this was your default,
97 That, being captain of the watch tonight,
98 Did look no better to that weighty charge.
99 ALENÇON.
100 Had all your quarters been as safely kept
101 As that whereof I had the government,
102 We had not been thus shamefully surprised.
103 BASTARD.
104 Mine was secure.
105 REIGNIER.
106 And so was mine, my lord.
107 CHARLES.
108 And for myself, most part of all this night,
109 Within her quarter and mine own precinct
110 I was employ’d in passing to and fro
111 About relieving of the sentinels.
112 Then how or which way should they first break in?
113 PUCELLE.
114 Question, my lords, no further of the case,
115 How or which way; ’tis sure they found some place
116 But weakly guarded, where the breach was made.
117 And now there rests no other shift but this:
118 To gather our soldiers, scattered and dispersed,
119 And lay new platforms to endamage them.
120 Alarum. Enter an English Soldier, crying “A Talbot! A Talbot!” They
121 fly, leaving their clothes behind.
122 SOLDIER.
123 I’ll be so bold to take what they have left.
124 The cry of “Talbot” serves me for a sword;
125 For I have loaden me with many spoils,
126 Using no other weapon but his name.
127 [_Exit._]