dges of his two brother peers, and was taken
into the King's favor. The Earl of Cambridge made a confession of his
guilt. Lord Scrope, though he repudiated the imputation of disloyalty,
admitted having had a guilty knowledge of the plot, which he said it had
been his purpose to defeat. The one nobleman, in consideration of his
royal blood, was simply beheaded; the other was drawn and quartered. We
hear of no more attempts of the kind during Henry's reign.

With a fleet of one thousand five hundred sail Henry crossed the sea and
landed without opposition at Chef de Caux, near Harfleur, at the mouth
of the Seine. The force that he brought with him was about thirty
thousand men, and he immediately employed it in laying siege to
Harfleur. The place was strong, so far as walls and bulwarks could make
it, but it was not well victualled, and after a five-weeks' siege it was
obliged to capitulate. But the forces of the besieged were thinned by
disease as well as actual fighting. Dysentery had broken out in the
camp, and, though it was only September, they suffered bitterly from the
coldness of the nights; so that, when the town had been won and
garrisoned, the force available for further operations amounted to less
than half the original strength of the invading army.

Under the circumstances it was hopeless to expect to do much before the
winter set in, and many counselled the King to return to England. But
Henry could not tolerate the idea of retreat or even of apparent
inaction. He sent a challenge to the Dauphin, offering to refer their
differences to single combat; and when no notice was taken of this
proposal, he determined to cut his way, if possible, through the country
to Calais, along with the remainder of his forces.

It was a difficult and hazardous march. Hunger, dysentery, and fever had
already reduced the little band to less than nine thousand men, or, as
good authorities say, to little more than six thousand. The country
people were unfriendly, their supplies were cut off on all sides, and
the scanty stock of provisions with which they set out was soon
exhausted. For want of bread, many were driven to feed on nuts, while
the enemy harassed them upon the way and broke down the bridges in
advance of them. On one or two occasions, having repulsed an attack from
a garrison town, Henry demanded and obtained from the governor a
safe-conduct and a certain quantity of bread and wine, under threat of
setting fire to th