And to this point premeditating well,

A speech (which chane'd the very pin to cleave)
Aim'd, whatsoever the success befell,
That it no room should for a second leave,
More of this title then in hand to tell,
If so his skill him did not much deceive;

And 'gainst the king in public should appear, Thus frames his speech to the assembly there. "Pardon my boldness, my liege sovereign lord,

Nor your dread presence let my speech offend;
Your mild attention favourably afford,
Which such clear vigour to my spirit shall leud,
That it shall set an edge upon your sword,
To my demand and make you to attend,

Asking you, why men train'd to arms you
keep,

Your right in France yet suff'ring still to sleep. "Can such a prince be in an island pent, And poorly thus shut up within a sea? When as your right includes that vast extent, To th' either Alps your empire forth to lay. Can he be English-born, and is not bent To follow you? Appoint you but the way,

We'll wade if we want ships, the waves or climb, In one hand hold our swords, with th' other swim.

"What time controls your brave great grandsire's

claim

To th' realm of France, from Philip nam'd the fair,
Which to king Edward by his mother came,
Queen Isabel, that Philip's only heir,
Which this short intermission doth not maim?
But if it did, as he, so yours repair;

That where his right in blood prevailed not,
In spight of Hell, yet by his sword he got.

"What set that conqueror, by their Salique laws, Those poor decrees their parliaments could make?

He enter'd on the justness of his cause,
To make good what he dar'd to undertake;
And once in action, he stood not to pause,
But in upon them like a tempest brake,

And down their buildings with such fury bare,
That they from mists dissolved were to air.
"As those brave Edwards, father and the son,
At conquer'd Cressy with successful luck,
Where first all France (as at one game) they won,
Never two warriors such a battle struck,
That when the bloody dismal fight was done,
Here in one heap, there in another ruck,

Princes and peasants lay together mixt, The English swords no difference knew betwixt. "There Lewis king of Beame was overthrown, With valiant Charles, of France the younger brother;

A dauphin, and two dukes in pieces hewn ;
To them six earls lay slain by one another;
There the grand prior of France fetcht his last

crown,

Duke Charles his daughter, wrongfully put down. "Nor think, my liege, a fitter time than this, You could have found your title to advance, At the full height when now the faction is, Twixt Burgoyne and the house of Orleánce: Your purpose you not possibly can miss, It for my lord so luckily doth chance,

That whilst these two in opposition stand,
You may have time your army there to land.
"And if my fancy doth not overpress
My visual sense, methinks in every eye
I see such cheer, as of our good success
In France hereafter seems to prophesy.
Think not, my sovereign, my allegiance less,"
Quoth he; "my lords, nor do you misapply
My words, thus long upon this subject spent,
Who humbly bere submit to your assent."
This speech of his that powerful engine prov'd,
Than e'er our fathers got, which rais'd us higher;
The clergy's fear that quietly remov❜d,

And into France transferr'd our hostile fire;
It made the English through the world belov'd,
That durst to those so mighty things aspire;

And gave so clear a lustre to our fame,
That neighbouring nations trembled at our name.
When through the house this rumour scarcely ran,
That war with France propounded was again,
In all th' assembly there was not a man,
But put the project on with might and main;
So great applause it generally wan,
That else no bus'ness they would entertain;
As though their honour utterly were lost,
If this design should any way be crost.
So much men's minds now upon France were set,
That every one doth with himself forecast,
What might fall out this enterprise to let,
As what again might give it wings of haste;
And for they knew the French did still abet
The Scot against us, which we us'd to taste,
It question'd was, if it were fit or no,
To conquer them e'er we to France should go.

Jacks are in working, and strong shirts of male;
This scowers an old Fox, that a Bilboa blade';
Now shields and targets only are for sale;
Who works for war, now thriveth by his trade.
The brown bill and the battle-ax prevail;

And instantly an embassy is sent

To Charles of France, to will him to restore
Those territories, of whose large extent
The English kings were owners of before;
Which if he did not, and incontinent,
The king would set those English on his shore,
That in despight of him, and all his might,
Should leave their lives there, or redeem his right.

First Normandy in his demand he makes,
With Aquitain, a dutchy no less great;
Anjou and Mayne, with Gascoyne, which he takes
Clearly his own, as any English seat.
With these proud France he first of all awakes,
For their delivery giving power to treat:

For well he knew, if Charles should these restore,
No king of France was ever left so poor.

The king and dauphin, to his proud demand,
That he might see they no such matter meant,
As a thing fitter for his youthful hand,
A ton of Paris tennis-balls him sent,
Better himself to make him understand,
Deriding his ridiculous intent:

And that was all the answer he could get;
Which more the king doth to this conquest whet.
That answering the ambassador, quoth he, [give,
"Thanks for my balls to Charles your sovereign
And thus assure him and his son from me,
I'll send him balls and rackets, if I live,
That they such racket shall in Paris see,
When over line with bandies I shall drive,

As that before the set be fully done,
France may (perhaps) into the hazard run."

So little doth luxurious France foresee,
By her disdain, what she upon her drew,
(In her most bravery seeming then to be).
The punishment that shortly should ensue :
Which so incens'd the English king, that he
For full revenge into that fury grew,

That those three horrours, famine, sword, and
Could not suffice to satisfy his ire..

[fire,

In all men's mouths now was no word but war,
As though no thing had any other name;
And folk would ask of them arriv'd from far,
What forces were preparing whence they came?
'Gainst any business 'twas a lawful bar,
To say for France they were; and 'twas a shame
For any man to take in hand to do

Aught, but something that did belong thereto.

! The duke of Exeter, the king's own uncle.

The curious fletcher fits his well-strung bow, And his barb'd arrow, which he sets to show. Tents and pavillions in the fields are pitch'd, E'er full wrought up, their roomthiness to try; Windows and towers with ensigns are enrich'd, With ruffling banners, that do brave the sky; Wherewith the wearied labourer bewitch'd, To see them thus hang waving in his eye,

His toilsome burthen from his back doth throw,
And bids them work that will, to France he'll go.
Rich saddles for the light-horse and the bard,
For to be brav'st there's not a man but plies;
Plumes, bandrolls, and caparisons prepar'd;
Whether of two, and men at arms devise,
The greaves' or guises 10 were the surer guard,
The vambrass" or the pouldron they should prize}
And where a stand of pikes plac'd close, or
large,

Which way to take advantage in the charge,
One trains his horse, another trails his pike;
He with his poll-ax practiseth the fight;
The bow-man (which no country hath the like)
With his sheaf-arrow proveth by his might,
How many score off he his foe can strike,
Yet not to draw above his bosom's height.

The trumpets sound the charge and the retreat; The bellowing drum the march again doth beat.

Cannons upon their carriage mounted are,
Whose battery France must feel upon her walls;
The engineer providing the petard,
To break the strong portcullice; and the balls
Of wild-fire, devis'd to throw from far,
To burn to ground their palaces and halls :

Some studying are the scale which they had got,
Thereby to take the level of their shot 12.

The man in years preach'd to his youthful son
Press'd to this war, as they sate by the fire,
What deeds in France were by his father done,
To this attempt to work him to aspire;
And told him there how he an ensign won,
Which many a year was hung up in the quire:

And in the battle, where he made his way, How many Frenchmen he struck down that day,

The good old man, with tears of joy, would tell
In Cressy field what prizes Edward play'd;
As what at Poictiers the Black Prince befell,
How like a lion he about him laid:

In deeds of arms how Audley did excel;
For their old sins how they the Frenchmen paid;
How bravely Basset did behave him there;
How Oxford charg'd the van, Warwick the rear.

"And, boy," quoth he,

sire say,

"I've heard thy grand

That once he did an English archer see,
Who shooting at a French twelve score away,
Quite through the body stuck him to a tree;
Upon their strengths a king his crown might lay:
Such were the men of that brave age," quoth he,
"When with his ax he at his foe let drive,
Murrian and scalp down to the teeth could
rive."

The scarlet judge might now set up his mule,
With neighing steeds the streets so pester'd are;
For where he wont in Westminster to rule,
On his tribunal sate the man of war;
The lawyer to his chamber doth recule,
For he hath now no bus'ness at the bar;

But to make wills and testaments for those

pose.

By this, the council of this war had met,
And had at latge of every thing discust;
And the grave clergy had with them been set,
To warrant what they undertook was just;
And as for monies, that to be no let,
They bade the king for that to them to trust:
The church to pawn would see her chalice laid,
E'er she would leave one pioneer unpaid.
From Milford haven to the mouth of Tweed,
Ships of all burthen to Southampton brought,
(For there the king the rendezvous decreed)
To bear aboard his most victorious fraught:
The place from whence he with the greatest speed
Might land in France, of any that was thought,

And with success upon that lucky shore,
Where his great grandsire 13 landed had before.

But, for he found those vessels were too few,
That into France his army should convey,
He sent to Belgia, whose great store he knew
Might now at need supply him every way.
His bounty ample as the winds that blew,
Such barks for portage out of ev'ry bay

In Holland, Zealand, and in Flanders, brings,
As spread the wide Sleeve1 with their canvass
wings.

But first seven ships from Rochester are sent,
The narrow seas of all the French to sweep:
All men of war with scripts of mart that went,
And had command the coast of France to keep,
The coming of a navy to prevent,
And view what strength was in the bay of Diepe;
And if they found it like to come abroad,
To do their best to fire it in the road.
The Bonaventure", George, and the Expence,
Three as tall ships as e'er did cable tew;
The Henry Royal, at her parting thence,
Like the huge ruck 16 from Gillingham that flew:
The Antilope, the Elephant, Defence,
Bottoms as good as ever spread a clue:

All having charge, their voyage having been,
Before Southampton to take soldiers in.

13 Edward the third.

14 The sea between France and England, so called. 15 The names of the king's seven ships of war. 16 An Indian bird, so large, that she is able to carry an elepant....

Two wealthy Spanish merchants did her own,
Who then but lately had repair'd her waste;
For from her deck a pirate she had blown,
After a long fight, and him took at last:

And from Mounts-Bay six more, that still in sight
Waited with her before the isle of Wight.
From Plymouth next came in the Blazing Star
And fiery Dragon, to take in their fraught,
With other four especial men of war,
That in the bay of Portugal had fought;
And though returning from a voyage far, [wrought.
Stem'd that rough sea, when at the high'st it
With these, of Dartmouth seven good ships there
The golden crescent in their tops that bear. [were,
So Lyme three ships into the navy sent,
Of which the Sampson scarce a month before
Had sprung a plank, and her main-mast had spent,
With extreme peril that she got to shore:
With them five other out of Weymouth went,
Which by Southampton were made up a score:
With those that rode at pleasure in the bay,
And that at anchor before Portsmouth lay.
Next these, Newcastle furnisheth the fleet
With nine good hoyes, of necessary use;
The Danish pirates valiantly that beat,
Offering to sack them as they sail'd for Sluce.
Six hulks from Hull at Humber's mouth them meet,
Which had them oft accompany'd to Pruce".

Five more from Yarmouth falling them among,
That had for fishing been prepared long.

The Cow of Harwich, never put to flight,
For hides and furs late to Muscovia bound;
Of the same port, another nam'd the Spight,
That in her coming lately through the Sound,
After a two days' still-continued fight,
Had made three Flemings run themselves aground
With three neat fly-boats, which with them do
Six ships of Sandwich, up the fleet to make. [take
Nine ships for the nobility there went,
Of able men, the enterprise to aid,
Which to the king most liberally they lent,
At their own charge, and bountifully paid.
Northumberland and Westmorland in sent
Fourscore at arms apiece, themselves and laid
At sixscore archers each, as Suffolk shows
Twenty tall men at arms, with forty bows.

11 Prussia.

Warwick and Stafford levied at no less
Than noble Suffolk, nor do offer more
Of men at arms, and archers which they press,
Of their own tenants, arm'd with their own store :
Their forwardness foreshows their good success
In such a war as had not been before:

And other barons, under earls that were,
Yet dar'd with them an equal charge to bear.
Darcy and Camois, zealous for the king;
Lovell, Fitzwater, Willoughby and Ross,
Berckley, Powis, Burrell, fast together cling;
Seymour and St. John, for the bus'ness close,
Each twenty horse, and forty foot do bring
More, to nine hundred mounting in the gross,
In those nine ships, and fitly them bestow'd,
Which with the other fall into the road.

From Holland, Zealand, and from Flanders won
By weekly pay, threescore twelve bottoms came,
From fifty upward to five hundred ton,
For ev'ry use a mariner could name,
Whose glittering flags against the radiant Sun,
Show'd as the sea had all been of a flame:

For skiffs, crays, shallops, and the like, why these
From ev'ry small creek cover'd all the seas.
The man whose way from London hap'd to lie,
By those he met might guess the general force;
Daily encounter'd as he passed by,

Now with a troop of foot, and then of horse,
To whom the people still themselves apply,
Bringing them victuals as in meer remorse;

And still the acclamation of the press,
"Saint George for England, to your good
success."

There might a man have seen in ev'ry street,
The father bidding farewel to his son;
Small children kneeling at their fathers feet;
The wife with her dear husband ne'er had done;
Brother his brother with adieu to greet;
One friend to take leave of another run;

The maiden, with her best-belov'd to part,
Gave him her hand, who took away her heart.
The nobler youth, the common rank above,
On their courveting coursers mounted fair,
One wore his mistress' garter, one her glove;
And he a lock of his dear lady's hair;
And he her colours whom he most did love.
There was not one but did some favour wear;
And each one took it on his happy speed,
To make it famous by some knightly deed.
The clouds of dust that from the ways arose,
Which in their march the trampling troops do
rear;

When as the Sun their thickness doth oppose
In his descending, shining wond'rous clear,
To the beholder, far off standing, shows
Like some besieged town that were on fire:

As though foretelling, e'er they should return,
That many a city, yet secure, must burn.
The well-rigg'd navy fall'n into the road,
For this short cut with victual fully stor❜d,
The king impatient of their long abode,
Commands his army instantly aboard,
Casting to bave each company bestow'd,
As then the time convenience could afford;
The ships appointed wherein they should go,
Aud boats prepar'd for waftage to and fro.

To be embark'd when every band comes down,
Fach in their order as they muster'd were,
Or by the difference of their armings known,
Or by their colours; for in ensigns there,
Some wore the arms of their most ancient town,
Others again their own devices bear:

There was not any, but that, more or less,
Something had got, that something should express
First, in the Kentish streamer was a wood,
Out of whose top an arm that held a sword,
As their right emblem; and to make it good,
They above other only had a word,
Which was, UNCONQUER'D, as that freest had stood.
Sussex, the next that was to come aboard,

Bore a black lion rampant 13, sore that bled,
With a field-arrow darted through the head.

The men of Surry, checky blue and gold,
Which for brave Warren, their first earl, they wore,
In many a field that honour'd was of old.
And Hampshire next, in the same colours bore
Three lions passant, th' arms of Bevis bold,
Who through the world so famous was of yore.
A silver tower, Dorset's red banner bears:
The Cornishmen two wrestlers had for theirs.
The Devonshire band, a beacon set on fire;
Somerset, a virgin bathing in a spring:
Their city's arms the men of Glo'stershire,
In gold three bloody chevernels, do bring.
Wiltshire a crowned pyramid, as nigher
Than any other to march to the king;

Berkshire a stag, under an oak that stood;
Oxford, a white bull wading in a flood.
The muster'd men for Buckingham are gone
Under the swan, the arms of that old town
The Londoners and Middlesex as one,
Are by the red cross and the dagger known,
The men of Essex, over-match'd by none,
Under queen Helen's" image marching down.
Suffolk, a sun half risen from the brake;
Norfolk, a triton on a dolphin's back.
The soldiers sent from Cambridgeshire, a bay
Upon a mountain, water'd with a shower;
Hartford, two harts that in a river play;
Bedford's, an eagle perch'd upon a tower;
And Huntington, a people proud as they,
Nor giving place to any for their power,

A youthful hunter with a chaplet crown'd,
In a py'd lyam leading forth his hound.
Northampton with a castle seated high,
Supported by two lions, thither came;
The men of Rutland, to them marching nigh,
In their rich ensign bear an ermin ram;
And Lei'stershire, that on their strength rely,
A bull and mastiff 20 fighting for the game.

Lincoln a ship most neatly that was limn'd",
In all her sails with flags and pennants trimm'd.