ressing emergence, as
an act worthy of a Christian King. But Henry, who in no department of
his public duties ever willingly deputed to others what he could
personally attend to himself, carried the same principle into the
exercise of the charities of private life; and has here left a pattern
of Christian sympathy and lowliness of mind, of genuine philanthropy,
and the sincere affection of true friendship, worthy of prince and
peasant alike to imitate. Bishop Courtenay is said to have been among
Henry's chosen friends, recommended to him by the singular qualities
of his head and his heart. He was a person (we are told) endowed with
intellectual and moral excellences of a very high character; (p. 148)
and Henry knew how to appreciate the value, and cultivate the friendship,
of such a man. Having enjoyed the satisfaction and benefit of his
society in life, now, when he was on the point of quitting this world
for ever, Henry never withdrew from his bed; but, watching him with
tender anxiety till the ministers of religion had solemnized the last
rite according to the prevailing practice of the church in those days,
even then, "in his own person," he continued to supply the wants of
sinking mortality, "with his own hands[118] wiping the chilled feet"
of his dying friend. The manuscript proceeds to say, that, when life
was extinct, with pious regard for his memory, Henry caused his body
to be conveyed to England, and to be honourably buried among the royal
corpses in Westminster.

[Footnote 117: Sloane MS. 1776.]

[Footnote 118: A very curious turn has been given
inadvertently to this circumstance by the
translation of the ecclesiastic's sentence, and the
comment upon it, now found in the Appendix to the
"Battle of Agincourt." "Rege praesente, pedes ejus
tergente post extremam unctionem propriis
manibus,"--words which can only be translated so as
to represent the King, "after extreme unction,
wiping the feet" of the Bishop,--the Editor of that
work, by the careless blunder of an amanuensis, or
some unaccountable accident, is made to render by
the strange sentence, "_covering_ his feet _with_
extreme unction;" and he is then led, as a comment