me king on the death of his
father he told his wild companions that the days of his wildness
were over; and he advised them to lead better lives in future.

As Henry V, Prince Hal made himself famous in English history by
his war with France.

Normandy, you remember, had belonged to Henry's ancestor, William
the Conqueror. It had been taken from King John of England by the
French king, Philip Augustus, in 1203.

Soon after his coronation Henry sent a demand to the French king
that Normandy should be restored, and he made the claim which his
great-grandfather, Edward III, had made that he was by right the
king of France.

[Illustration: KING HENRY V REJECTS HIS EARLY COMPANIONS]

Of course, the king of France would not acknowledge this. Henry
therefore raised an army of thirty thousand men and invaded France.

Before he began to attack the French he gave strict orders to his
men that they were to harm no one who was not a soldier and to
take nothing from the houses or farms of any persons who were not
fighting.

Sickness broke out among Henry's troops after they landed, so that
their number was reduced to about fifteen thousand. Fifty or sixty
thousand Frenchmen were encamped on the field of Agincourt
(_aezh-an-koor'_) to oppose this little army.

The odds were greatly against Henry. The night before the battle
one of his officers said he wished that the many thousand brave
soldiers who were quietly sleeping in their beds in England were
with the king.

"I would not have a single man more," said Henry. "If God give
us victory, it will be plain we owe it to His grace. If not, the
fewer we are the less loss for England."

[Illustration: CHARGE OF THE FRENCH AT THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT]

The men drew courage from their king. The English archers poured
arrows into the ranks of their opponents; and although the French
fought bravely, they were completely routed. Eleven thousand Frenchmen
fell. Among the slain were more than a hundred of the nobles of
the land.

II

Agincourt was not the last of Henry's victories. He brought a second
army of forty thousand men over to France. Town after town was
captured, and at last Henry and his victorious troops laid siege
to Rouen, which was then the largest and richest city in France.

The fortifications were so strong that Henry could not storm them,
so he determined to take the place by starving the garrison. He
said, "War has three handmaidens--fire, blood, and famin