circumstances mistaken or exaggerated. In reflecting on this
course of incidents, the thought forces itself upon our mind, that the
mandate was given, not in cool blood, nor when there was time and
opportunity for deliberation and for calculating upon the means and
chances of safety, but upon the instant, on a sudden unexpected
renewal of the engagement from a quarter from which no danger was
anticipated; at a moment, too, when, just after the heat of the battle
was passing over, the routed enemy were collecting again in great
numbers in various parts of the field, with a view evidently of
returning to the charge and crushing their conquerors; at a moment,
too, when the English were scattered about, separating the living from
the dead, and all was yet confusion and uncertainty. Another fact, as
clearly and distinctly recorded as the original issuing of the
mandate, is, that no sooner was the danger of the immediate and
inevitable sacrifice of the lives of his men removed by the retreat of
the assailants, than, without waiting for the dispersion of those
menacing bodies then congregating around him, Henry instantly
countermanded the order, and saved the remainder of the prisoners. The
bare facts of the case, from first to last, admit of no other
alternative than for our judgment to pronounce it to have been
altogether an imperative inevitable act of self-preservation, without
the sacrifice of any life, or the suffering of any human being, (p. 174)
beyond the absolute and indispensable necessity of the case.

But, perhaps, the most striking and conclusive testimony in
vindication of Henry's character on that day of slaughter and victory,
is borne both by the silence and also by the expressed sentiments of
the contemporary historians. This evidence deserves to be put more
prominently forward than it has ever yet been. Indeed, as long as
there was no charge of cruelty, or unnecessary violence, brought
against his name in this particular, there was little need of alleging
any evidence in his defence. It remained for modern writers, after a
lapse of centuries, to stigmatize the command as an act of barbarity,
and to represent it as having tarnished and stained the victory of him
who gave it.[136] It is, however, a most remarkable and satisfactory
circumstance that, of the contemporary historians, and those who
followed most closely upon them, who have detailed the proceedings (p. 175)
with more or less minuteness, and wit