Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/541

A.D. 1415.] thrown by contemporary historians on the progress of the plot, we can only perceive that Cambridge had sought the co-operation of several persons who were known to have acted or suffered in the opposition to the late king. These were Sir Thomas Grey, of Heton, in Northumberland, and Lord Scrope, of Masham, both of whom had been involved in the Percy insurrections themselves, or by their near relatives. Scrope was at this time high in the favour of his sovereign. He was his trusted chamberlain, and one of the most confidential of his privy council. In the chase and in his social hours, he was the especial companion of Henry. Yet he appears to have given in to this base conspiracy, and Henry was to be assassinated before embarking, after which, the conspirators were to escape to Wales with the Earl of Marche, and there raise the banner of revolt in his behalf.

It would seem that the conspiracy was as ill-constructed as it was wicked. The conspirators do not appear to have obtained the decided sanction of the principal person concerned. Probably Cambridge might have speculated on private conversations with his brother-in-law, the Earl of Marche, and have persuaded himself that he would fall in with such a scheme when it appeared to him feasible. But when, at the moment of action, Marche was apprised of the intended blow, he refused, by the earnest advice of his man Lacy, to swear to keep the secret, but required an hour in which to consider of the proposal. However the persuasions of Cambridge or his own secret feeling: might have inclined him at any previous moment, now, when his friend and noble patron Henry was menaced with instant death, Marche at once decided, and hastened to apprise the king of his danger. That Marche had listened to the voice of the tempter is plain from him first requesting a pardon from Henry for giving ear "to his rebels and traitors sufficiently to understand their schemes."

This pardon Henry at once accorded, but he seized the conspirators, and brought them immediately before a council, where their fate was to be decided by twelve jurors of the county. Grey pleaded guilty to the charge of having conspired to kill the king, "to proclaim the Earl of Marche, in case Richard II. was really dead," to having by their emissaries solicited the said Richard, or, as he was by the indictment declared to be, Thomas of Tumpington, who personated that monarch, to invade the king's dominions with a body of Scottish forces and Scottish lords.

Cambridge and Scrope demanded to be tried by their peers, whereupon all the lords of the army were summoned; the Duke of Clarence was appointed to preside in place of the king, and the Duke of York, that he might not sit in judgment on his own brother, nominated the Earl of Dorset his proxy.

Cambridge made an earnest appeal to the king for mercy, and Scrope pleaded, like Marche, that he had only listened in order to ascertain the objects of the conspirators, so that he might effectually defeat them. The plea did not avail him any more than the cowardly prayer of Cambridge. They were all three condemned, were led out to the north gate of the town, and had their heads struck off, just as the royal fleet, with a favourable wind, hoisted sail, and bore out of the harbour of Southampton, on the 13th of August, 1415.

This memorable expedition, thus painfully inaugurated by the blood of treason in the very near kindred of the king, consisted of 6,000 men-at-arms, and 24,000 archers, which so many occasions had now demonstrated to be the real power of England. These troops wore carried in a fleet of 1,500 sail; and, with an auspicious wind, entered the mouth of the Seine on the second day, August 18th. Three days were consumed in landing the troops and stores, and it does not appear that there was any opposition from the enemy.

Henry at once laid siege to the strong fortress of Harfleur, situated on the left bank of the river, and defended by a numerous garrison, under the command of the Counts D'Estouteville, De Guitri, and De Gaucourt, as well as others of the French nobility. The siege was conducted according to the principles of the greatest master of engineering of the time, Master Giles, the splendid manuscript of whose work, "De Regimine Principum," is yet preserved in the Harleian Collection of the British Museum.

The French knights of the garrison displayed the utmost bravery, and made repeated assaults on the troops of Henry while throwing up their entrenchments, but they were received in such a manner by the archers that they were soon very glad to keep within the shelter of their walls. These walls themselves were in bad repair; the succours which had been promised by the Government did not arrive; the English cannon was fast demolishing the outworks, and sappers undermining the towers. A worse enemy than even the English was also amongst them—the dysentery, owing to the dampness of the place, and the unhealthy quality of the provisions; and the garrison surrendered on the 22nd of September, after a defence of thirty-six days.

Henry seated himself on his throne, placed beneath a magnificent tent, on the summit of a hill opposite to the town, where he received the submission of the garrison. On each side of the throne stood the English nobles; Sir Robert Umphraville on the king's right hand bearing the royal helmet, surmounted by the crown, on the point of a lance. De Gaucourt, the Governor of Harfleur, attended by thirty-four burgesses, approached; and kneeling, presented the keys of the town and prayed the king's mercy.

Henry's conduct on this occasion was opposed to his usual humanity, and seemed dictated not by the generous policy which immediately afterwards followed, but by the stern and less effective principles which guided Edward III. at Calais. He fixed his banner and that of St. George over the principal gate, and then gave permission for the men-at-arms to retire, having deposited their arms, stripped to their doublets, on condition that they swore to take no further part in this campaign, but to surrender themselves within a certain time as prisoners to the Governor of Calais.

So far, all was lenient and humane; but then, after walking barefoot to church, to return thanks for his victory, he commanded all the inhabitants—men, women, and children—to quit their homes for over; to relinquish all their property to the conquerors, except a portion of their clothes, and five pennies each to procure provisions on their way. All their wealth, the arms and horses of the garrison, were to become the spoil of the English