Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/32

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Arch. Thus have you heard our cause and known our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,

Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:

And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it?

Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms;

But gladly would be better satisfied

How in our means we should advance ourselves

To look with forehead bold and big enough

Upon the power and puissance of the king.

Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file

To five-and-twenty thousand men of choice;

And our supplies live largely in the hope

Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns

With an incensed fire of injuries.

L. Bard. The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus:

Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand

May hold up head without Northumberland.

Hast. With him, we may.

L. Bard.Ay, marry, there's the point:

But if without him we be thought too feeble,

My judgment is, we should not step too far

Till we had his assistance by the hand;

For in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,

Conjecture, expectation, and surmise

Of aids incertain should not be admitted.

 10 file: muster roll

12 supplies: reinforcements 