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And not, to break a promise with his foe?

VILLIERS.

To kill, my Lord, when war is once proclaimed,

So that our quarrel be for wrongs received,

No doubt, is lawfully permitted us;

But in an oath we must be well advised,

How we do swear, and, when we once have sworn,

Not to infringe it, though we die therefore:

Therefore, my Lord, as willing I return,

As if I were to fly to paradise.

CHARLES.

Stay, my Villiers; thine honorable min

Deserves to be eternally admired.

Thy suit shall be no longer thus deferred:

Give me the paper, I'll subscribe to it;

And, wheretofore I loved thee as Villiers,

Hereafter I'll embrace thee as my self.

Stay, and be still in favour with thy Lord.

VILLIERS.

I humbly thank you grace; I must dispatch,

And send this passport first unto the Earl,

And then I will attend your highness pleasure.

CHARLES.

Do so, Villiers;—and Charles, when he hath need,

Be such his soldiers, howsoever he speed!

[Exit Villiers.]

[Enter King John.]

KING JOHN.

Come, Charles, and arm thee; Edward is entrapped,

The Prince of Wales is fallen into our hands,

And we have compassed him; he cannot escape.

CHARLES.

But will your highness fight to day?

KING JOHN.

What else, my son? he's scarce eight thousand strong,

And we are threescore thousand at the least.

CHARLES.

I have a prophecy, my gracious Lord,

Wherein is written what success is like

To happen us in this outrageous war;

It was delivered me at Cresses field

By one that is an aged Hermit there.

[Reads.] 'When feathered foul shall make thine army tremble,

And flint stones rise and break the battle ray,

Then think on him that doth not now dissemble;

For that shall be the hapless dreadful day:

Yet, in the end, thy foot thou shalt advance

As far in England as thy foe in France.'

KING JOHN.

By this it seems we shall be fortunate:

For as it is impossible that stones

Should ever rise and break the battle ray,

Or airy foul make men in arms to quake,

So is it like, we shall not be subdued:

Or say this might be true, yet in the end,

Since he doth promise we shall drive him hence

And forage their Country as they have done ours,

By this revenge that loss will seem the less.

But all are frivolous fancies, toys, and dreams:

Once we are sure we have ensnared the son,

Catch we the father after how we can.

[Exeunt.]

ACT IV. SCENE IV. The same. The English Camp.

[Enter Prince Edward, Audley, and others.]

PRINCE EDWARD.

Audley, the arms of death embrace us round,

And comfort have we none, save that to die

We pay sower earnest for a sweeter life.

At Cressey field out Clouds of Warlike smoke

Choked up those French mouths & dissevered them;

But now their multitudes of millions hide,

Masking as twere, the beauteous burning Sun,

Leaving no hope to us, but sullen dark

And eyeless terror of all ending night.

AUDLEY.

This sudden, mighty, and expedient head

That they have made, fair prince, is wonderful.

Before us in the valley lies the king,

Vantaged with all that heaven and earth can yield;

His party stronger battled than our whole:

His son, the braving Duke of Normandy,

Hath trimmed the Mountain on our right hand up

In shining plate, that now the aspiring hill

Shews like a silver quarry or an orb,

Aloft the which the Banners, bannarets,

And new replenished pendants cuff the air

And beat the winds, that for their gaudiness

Struggles to kiss them: on our left hand lies

Phillip, the younger issue of the king,

Coating the other hill in such array,

That all his guilded upright pikes do seem

Straight trees of gold, the pendants leaves;

And their device of Antique heraldry,

Quartered in colours, seeming sundry fruits,

Makes it the Orchard of the Hesperides:

Behind us too the hill doth bear his height,

For like a half Moon, opening but one way,

It rounds us in; there at our backs are lodged

The fatal Crossbows, and the battle there

Is governed by the rough Chattillion.

Then thus it stands: the valley for our flight

The king binds in; the hills on either hand

Are proudly royalized by his sons;