ipped with iron; and his
orders were, to thrust this stake into the ground, to discharge his
arrow, and then to fall back, when the French horsemen came on. As the
haughty French gentlemen, who were to break the English archers and
utterly destroy them with their knightly lances, came riding up, they
were received with such a blinding storm of arrows, that they broke and
turned. Horses and men rolled over one another, and the confusion was
terrific. Those who rallied and charged the archers got among the stakes
on slippery and boggy ground, and were so bewildered that the English
archers--who wore no armour, and even took off their leathern coats to be
more active--cut them to pieces, root and branch. Only three French
horsemen got within the stakes, and those were instantly despatched. All
this time the dense French army, being in armour, were sinking knee-deep
into the mire; while the light English archers, half-naked, were as fresh
and active as if they were fighting on a marble floor.

But now, the second division of the French coming to the relief of the
first, closed up in a firm mass; the English, headed by the King,
attacked them; and the deadliest part of the battle began. The King's
brother, the Duke of Clarence, was struck down, and numbers of the French
surrounded him; but, King Henry, standing over the body, fought like a
lion until they were beaten off.

Presently, came up a band of eighteen French knights, bearing the banner
of a certain French lord, who had sworn to kill or take the English King.
One of them struck him such a blow with a battle-axe that he reeled and
fell upon his knees; but, his faithful men, immediately closing round
him, killed every one of those eighteen knights, and so that French lord
never kept his oath.

The French Duke of Alencon, seeing this, made a desperate charge, and cut
his way close up to the Royal Standard of England. He beat down the Duke
of York, who was standing near it; and, when the King came to his rescue,
struck off a piece of the crown he wore. But, he never struck another
blow in this world; for, even as he was in the act of saying who he was,
and that he surrendered to the King; and even as the King stretched out
his hand to give him a safe and honourable acceptance of the offer; he
fell dead, pierced by innumerable wounds.

The death of this nobleman decided the battle. The third division of the
French army, which had never struck a blow yet, and w