new his pretension to the crown of
France, makes a great movement." "The present year,
on the incidents of which I proceed to remark,
seems to me not less full of troubles and evils
than any of those which preceded it. It commenced
by a rumour, sudden but true, and which spread
itself everywhere, that the English, impatient of
repose, blaming for carelessness and want of heart
the repose and inactivity of their King Henry, had
_compelled him_ to arouse himself, and to revive by
the same means the pretensions of some of his
predecessors on the crown of France." "Les Anglais,
impatiens de repos a leur ordinance, blamans de
nonchalance et de manque de coeur le repos et
l'oisivete de leur Roi Henri, l'avaient oblige de
se reveiller."--M. Laboureur, Life of Charles VI,
translated from the Latin of a contemporary
ecclesiastic. Whatever be the degree of authority
to which this author is entitled, whilst he
supplies the letters on which the accusation alone
is founded, he as expressly contradicts, by
positive assertion, the inference now drawn from
those letters.]

The charge of hypocrisy is made to rest "on Henry assuring the French
monarch of his moderation and love of peace, whereas he must have been
conscious that he was immoderate in his demands, and was not desirous
of peace." To prove that his demands were immoderate, is not enough to
sustain this accusation; to constitute him a hypocrite, he must
_himself have been conscious_ that his demands were immoderate. (p. 101)
But how stands the probability? He was fully persuaded that the crown
of France was his own; and he first demands the full surrender of his
alleged rights. The Commons declare that what he sought was "the
restitution of his inheritance according to _right and justice_," and
testify that he "trusted in God for support in his _just quarrel_." He
then, agreeably to the advice of his council,[79] (who acknowledge
that what he sought to recover was "his righteous heritage, (p. 102)
the redintegration of the old rights of his crown,") withdra