ymer,
vol. ix. p. 776. The circumstances of outward
courtesy, and concealed suspicion, and want of
faith, with which the contracting parties met,
deliberated, and separated on this occasion, are
detailed by Goodwin, p. 237.]

Henry, after the respite of these abortive negociations, again entered
upon his career of war and conquest. The next fortified town was
Ponthoise, possession of which would open his way to Paris. His
soldiers were in the highest spirits; and he seems himself, so far
from being dismayed by the union of the Duke of Burgundy with the
French court, to have been roused by a sense of his difficulties and
dangers to a still higher spirit of valour and enterprise. Ponthoise
was taken by surprise, and Henry regarded it as the most important
place he had taken during the war. How resolved soever he was to be
master of it, he would not make the attempt till after the expiration
of the truce with the Duke of Burgundy, "so punctual was he to the
observance of his faith and honour, which in brave princes are
inviolable." And, to use the words of Goodwin, "his soul was so little
altered from its natural moderation by this success, that he sent to
the King of France to tell him, that though he had taken so
considerable a town, which, being only a few leagues from Paris,
opened a way to the conquest of that capital, yet he now offered him
peace upon the same terms which he had propounded in the treaty (p. 256)
of Melun; with this only addition, that Ponthoise also should now be
confirmed to him."

The Dauphin's troops diminished the joy of this victory by taking one
or two places by surprise. Still all Paris was in great consternation,
and the panic ran through the Isle of France; whilst Clarence marched
his troops to the very walls of the metropolis. Shortly after the fall
of Ponthoise Henry despatched letters to the citizens of London; which
were intercepted by the enemy, who took the bearer of them prisoner.
He consequently sent another despatch to the same purport, from Trie
Le Chastel, near Gisors, on the 12th of the next month. The importance
he attached to this communication, his repetition of the intercepted
letters clearly intimates: it is chiefly interesting now because it
assures us that Henry believed himself to be almost within reach of
the objects of his enterprise; whilst it acquaints us also with the