ny order: the whole army was a scene
of confusion, terror, and dismay: and Henry, perceiving his advantage,
ordered the English archers, who were light and unencumbered, to advance
upon the enemy, and seize the moment of victory. They fell with their
battle-axes upon the French, who, in their present posture, were
incapable either of flying or of making defence: they hewed them in
pieces without resistance:[*] and being seconded by the men at arms
who also pushed on against the enemy, they covered the field with the
killed, wounded, dismounted, and overthrown.

* Walsing. p. 393. Ypod. Neust. p. 584.

After all appearance of opposition was over, the English had leisure to
make prisoners; and having advanced with uninterrupted success to the
open plain, they there saw the remains of the French rear guard, which
still maintained the appearance of a line of battle. At the same time,
they heard an alarm from behind: some gentlemen of Picardy, having
collected about six hundred peasants, had fallen upon the English
baggage, and were doing execution on the unarmed followers of the camp,
who fled before them, Henry, seeing the enemy on all sides of him,
began to entertain apprehensions from his prisoners; and he thought
it necessary to issue general orders for putting them to death: but on
discovering the truth, he stopped the slaughter, and was still able to
save a great number.

No battle was ever more fatal to France, by the number of princes and
nobility slain or taken prisoners. Among the former were the constable
himself, the count of Nevers and the duke of Brabant, brothers to
the duke of Burgundy; the count of Vaudemont, brother to the duke of
Lorraine, the duke of Alencon, the duke of Barre, the count of Marle.
The most eminent prisoners were the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, the
Counts d'Eu, Vendome, and Richemont, and the mareschal of Boucicaut.
An archbishop of Sens also was slain in this battle. The killed are
computed on the whole to have amounted to ten thousand men; and as the
slaughter fell chiefly upon the cavalry, it is pretended that, of these,
eight thousand were gentlemen. Henry was master of fourteen thousand
prisoners. The person of chief note who fell among the English, was the
duke of York, who perished fighting by the king's side, and had an end
more honorable than his life. He was succeeded in his honors and fortune
by his nephew, son of the earl of Cambridge, executed in the beginning
of th