Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/568

554 duchess, Michelle, lands in France of the annual value of 20,000 livres.

Accompanied by 16,000 men-at-arms, Henry entered Troyes, where the French court was, on the 30th of May, 1419, and the next day "the perpetual peace" was ratified by Isabella and Philip of Burgundy as the commissioners of Charles. The treaty was accepted with the most apparent alacrity and unanimity by the Parliament, the nobles, the heads of the church, the municipality, and all the corporate bodies of Paris. The highest eulogiums were pronounced by the Government authorities on Henry. He was declared, in addresses to the public bodies, to be a most wise and virtuous prince, a lover of peace and justice; a prince who maintained the most admirable discipline in his army, driving thence all lewd women, and protecting the women and the poor of the country from injury and insult; that he was a fast friend of the Church and of learning. Equal laudation was bestowed on his piety and the graces of his person. In short, there was no virtue and no advantage which they did not attribute to him; and though much of this was true, the whole had such an air of the sycophancy of an unprincipled court, as deprived it of any real value. Under all this yet lurked the feeling, especially in the people, that Henry was still a foreigner, and that France had ceased to be an independent country.

The young monarch was introduced to his intended bride, whom he found enthroned with her mother in the church of Notre Dame. Henry appeared, as became his warrior character, in a magnificent suit of burnished armour, and instead of a plume he wore in his helmet a fox's tail, ornamented with precious stones. This same fox's tail he had had carried on a spear before him when he entered Rouen as conqueror, from what whim or circumstance no historian has satisfactorily stated. The queen apologised for the absence of the king on account of his infirm health; but probably the real cause was that he had not nerve enough to go through the duty of depriving his own son of the succession.

Henry conducted the queen and princess to the high altar, and the young couple were there affianced, and "on the 3rd of June, Trinity Sunday," says Monstrelet, "the King of England wedded the Lady Catherine, at Troyes, in the parish church, near which he lodged. Great pomp and magnificence were displayed by him and his princes, as if he had been king of the whole world." The next day he gave a splendid entertainment, where, the knights of both nations preparing a series of tournaments in honour of the marriage, Henry, continues Monstrelet, said, "I pray my lord the king to permit, and I command his servants and mine to be all ready by to-morrow morning to go and lay siege to Sens, wherein are our enemies. There every man may have jousting and tourneying enough, and may give proof of his prowess; for there is no finer prowess than that of doing justice on the wicked, in order that poor people may breathe and live."

The concluding sentiment of this royal address is very noble, and the glory of it was, that in Henry, as we have already stated, it was the genuine sentiment and practice of his life. In all his campaigns he protected the poor and defenceless.

On the second day after his marriage he accordingly set out on his march to Sens, carrying his young queen with him. In two days Sens opened its gates, and the king and queen entered it in great state. The Archbishop of Sens, who married him, had been expelled from his diocese by the Armagnacs, and Henry had the pleasure of reinstating him, which he did in this graceful manner:—"Now, Monseigneur Archévesque, we are quits; you gave me my wife the other day, and I this day restore you to yours."

From Sens he marched upon Montereau, accompanied by the Duke of Burgundy, who was particularly anxious to reduce and punish the governor, who had assisted at the murder of his father. Montereau made a desperate, but not a long resistance. During this siege, Henry's bride resided with her father and mother and their court at Bray-sur-Seine, where Henry visited them.

On entering the town, the first care of the Duke of Burgundy was to visit the tomb of his father. The poor women of the place showed him the way, and the next day he caused the grave to be opened, and gazed in horror and indignation on the mangled corpse. The body was taken out and removed to the family mausoleum at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, and the body of the bastard of Croy, who had just been slain in the siege, was placed in the vacant grave. The castle of Montereau still held out, and here Henry gave an example of one of his occasional acts of severity. As the governor was not only immovable, but insulted his herald who was sent to summon him to surrender, Henry brought before the castle some of the Armagnac prisoners, whom he had taken in the town, and declared that he would hang them up there if De Guitry, the governor, would not yield. No notice was taken of the threat, and Henry proceeded to erect gibbets: still the governor was unmoved, though the prisoners knelt down on the edge of the castle moat, and implored him to open his gates and save their lives, as it was clear he could not hold out long. The governor was as impassable as his walls; the threat of Henry was carried into execution, and the poor fellows having been sacrificed to his obstinacy, in eight days afterwards the governor flung open his gates.

From Montereau the united forces of England and France proceeded to Villeneuve-le-Roy, and thence to Melun, which resisted all their efforts for four months. The dauphin had escaped into Languedoc, where he joined the young Count Armagnac, who had a strong party there. But Barbazan, the governor of Melun, was one of the men suspected of being engaged in the murder of the Duke of Burgundy, and the present duke was eager to secure him and other of his accomplices. Henry, therefore, excepted in the terms of capitulation all such as were participators in the guilt of that deed; but, of surrender, he interceded for Barbazan, and saved his life.

During this obstinate siege, which continued till the 18th of November, the court resided at Corbeil, where the poor old King of France was accustomed to have his melancholy soothed by the fine military band of his English son-in-law—the first expressly mentioned in history. The siege over, the two courts and all their attendants returned in a species of triumph to Paris. Henry and his father-in-law went first, as a matter of precaution, and made their entry into the city