fact, that he had applied for aid to all his friends through
Christendom. The letter, it is believed, has never yet been published.

"BY THE KING.

"Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well; and we thank you
with all our heart of the good-will and service that we have
always found in you hither-to-ward; and specially of your kind
and notable proffer of an aid, the which ye have granted to us of
your own good motion, as our brother of Bedford and our
Chancellor of England have written unto us, giving therein (p. 257)
good example in diverse wise to all the remanent of our subjects
in our land. And so we pray you, as our trust is ye will, for to
continue. And as to the said aid, the which ye have concluded to
do unto us now at this time, we pray you specially that we may
have [it] at such time and in such days as our brother of Bedford
shall more plainly declare unto you on our behalf; letting you
fully wit [giving you fully to understand] that we have written to
all our friends and allies through Christendom, for to have
succours and help of them against the same time that our said
brother shall declare you: the which, when they hear of the arming
and the array that ye and other of our subjects make at home in
help of us, shall give them great courage to haste their coming
unto us much the rather, and not fail, as we trust fully.
Wherefore we pray you heartily that ye would do, touching the
foresaid aid, as our said brother shall declare unto you on our
behalf: considering that [neither] so necessary ne [nor] so
acceptable a service as ye may do, and will do (as we trust into
you at this time), ye might never have done into us since our wars
in France began. For we trust fully to God's might and his mercy,
with good help of your aid and of our land, to have a good end of
our said war in short time, and for to come home unto you to great
comfort and singular joy of our heart, as God knoweth: the which
He grant us to his pleasance, and have you ever in his keeping!
Given under our signet in our town of Pontoise, the 17th day of
August.

"And weteth [know], that, the foresaid 17th day of August,
departed from us at Pontoise our letters to you direct in the
same tenour; and because it is said the bearer of them is by our
enemies taken into