Page:Henry VI Part 1 (1918) Yale.djvu/31

King Henry the Sixth, I. iv 

Sal. Talbot, my life, my joy! again return'd!

How wert thou handled being prisoner?

Or by what means got'st thou to be releas'd,

Discourse, I prithee, on this turret's top.

Tal. The Duke of Bedford had a prisoner

Call'd the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles;

For him I was exchang'd and ransomed.

But with a baser man at arms by far

Once in contempt they would have barter'd me:

Which I disdaining scorn'd, and craved death

Rather than I would be so vile-esteem'd.

In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd.

But, O! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart:

Whom with my bare fists I would execute

If I now had him brought into my power.

Sal. Yet tell'st thou not how thou wert entertain'd.

Tal. With scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts.

In open market-place produc'd they me,

To be a public spectacle to all:

Here, said they, is the terror of the French,

The scarecrow that affrights our children so.

Then broke I from the officers that led me,

And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground

To hurl at the beholders of my shame.

My grisly countenance made others fly.

None durst come near for fear of sudden death.

In iron walls they deem'd me not secure;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread

That they suppos'd I could rend bars of steel

 23-56 Cf. n.

38 entertain'd: treated 