Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/540

526 They repeated the terms of the former embassy as to peace and the matrimonial alliance of the two countries, but consented to accept the princess with half the original sum. On the other side, the French raised the amount proffered from 600,000 to 800,000 crowns. Here the matter ended, and the embassy returned.

Parliament of Henry V.-From the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum.

This was, no doubt, precisely what Henry expected; and now he made preparations for an immediate invasion. On the 16th of April he summoned at Westminster a council of fifteen spiritual and twenty-eight temporal peers, when he announced his resolve "to recover his inheritance by arms." His speech was received with the utmost applause and enthusiasm. The great barons and knights, eager to obtain military fame, engaged to furnish their quotas of troops to the utmost of their ability; Parliament granted two-tenths and fifteenths, and dissolved and made over to the king no less than a hundred alien priories, not conventual. Henry himself exerted every means of increasing his resources. He raised loans by pawning his crown jewels, the magnificent crown itself of Henry IV., and by other means, and altogether amassed the sum of 500,000 nobles in ready money. He rifled the cupboards and buffets of the royal palaces, and gave them as pledges of the ultimate payment of their prices to great creditors.

The Duke of Bedford, Henry's brother, was appointed regent of the kingdom during the royal absence; and the youthful monarch, full of aspirations of glory and conquest, set forward towards Southampton, the port of embarkation.

Meantime, the French princes, engrossed by their own dissensions, had made no exertions to prepare the kingdom for such a formidable attack. They fondly hoped that Henry would close with the liberal terms offered him, and were, therefore, thunderstruck with the present promptitude of his motions. They hastily sent over the Duke of Vendome and the Archbishop of Bourges to repeat the last advanced terms offered through the Duke of Bern. They met Henry at Winchester, but he would listen to nothing but the most complete surrender of all the rights that England ever possessed in France. There was now no going back; the time for mere diplomatic talk was over with Henry. He declared that the crown of France was his right, and that he would wrest it from its usurper by the sword. The Archbishop of Bourges, who seems to have been a man of spirit, on this assumed a bold demeanour, and declared that the King of France had made all possible concession, not out of any fear, but from sincere desire of peace. That if the king imagined he could easily overcome France he deceived himself. That its throne was the firmest in Europe. If," said he, "thou makest thy attempt, our sovereign lord will call upon the blessed Virgin, and upon all the saints, and by their aid thou wilt be driven into the sea by the king, his faithful subjects, and powerful allies; or thou wilt be slain, or taken captive."

To this lofty language Henry only smiling, replied, "We shall see." He appeared no way to resent the freedom of the spirited prelate, but gave him his passports at his request, and dismissed him and his attendants with valuable presents.

Proceeding to Southampton, Henry actively superintended the preparations for the embarkation of his army, which lay encamped along the shore in magnificent array. While he was thus engaged he once more sent off a messenger to the King of France, as if it were necessary to announce formally his coming. This time it was Antelope, his pursuivant-at-arms, who was instructed to demand all the provinces of England and the hand of Catherine, or to deliver the king's defiance. It was at this time, when the old king made a mild but firm reply, that the wild and profligate Louis, the dauphin, sent his gasconading message, accompanied by a parcel of tennis-balls, telling Henry that they much better befitted him, by all accounts of his past life, than cannon-balls; on hearing which, Henry is said to have been stung with momentary anger, and replied, "These balls shall be struck back with such a racket as shall force open Paris gates."

Some historians have treated this incident as apocryphal and improbable; but no fact is better authenticated by almost every chronicler of the time, and nothing is more accordant with the character of Prince Louis.

But in the very midst of Henry's active occupation of embarking his troops, danger was much nearer to him than from the tennis-balls or bravadoes of the giddy dauphin. A conspiracy to assassinate him was discovered at the very moment that it was intended to carry it into execution; and what is singular, the discovery came from the very person for whose especial benefit the movement was intended.

The young Earl of Marche, as we have already had occasion to state, was not only the true heir to the throne, but had been brought up with Henry, and was really attached to him. The sister of the young earl was married to Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and brother to the Duke of York. Cambridge, by his alliance with the true prince, appears to have been infected with the ambitious desire of seeing himself not merely brother to a legitimate prince who was contented in his station, which, though that of a subject, was honourable and happy, but brother to a king. From the little light