SCENE 1.Before Orleans
Enter a FRENCH SERGEANT and two SENTINELS
SERGEANT.Sirs,take your places and be vigilant.If any noise or soldier you perceive Near to the walls,by some apparent sign Let us have knowledge at the court of guard.FIRST SENTINEL.Sergeant,you shall.[Exit SERGEANT]Thus are poor servitors,When others sleep upon their quiet beds,Constrain'd to watch in darkness,rain,and cold.
Enter TALBOT,BEDFORD,BURGUNDY,and forces,with scaling-ladders;their drums beating a dead march
TALBOT.Lord Regent,and redoubted Burgundy,By whose approach the regions of Artois,Wallon,and Picardy,are friends to us,This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,Having all day carous'd and banqueted;Embrace we then this opportunity,As fitting best to quittance their deceit,Contriv'd by art and baleful sorcery.BEDFORD.Coward of France,how much he wrongs his fame,Despairing of his own arm's fortitude,To join with witches and the help of hell!BURGUNDY.Traitors have never other company.But what's that Pucelle whom they term so pure?TALBOT.A maid,they say.BEDFORD.A maid!and be so martial!BURGUNDY.Pray God she prove not masculine ere long,If underneath the standard of the French She carry armour as she hath begun.TALBOT.
Well,let them practise and converse with spirits:God is our fortress,in whose conquering name Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.BEDFORD.Ascend,brave Talbot;we will follow thee.TALBOT.Not all together;better far,I guess,That we do make our entrance several ways;That if it chance the one of us do fail The other yet may rise against their force.BEDFORD.Agreed;I'll to yond corner.BURGUNDY.And I to this.TALBOT.And here will Talbot mount or make his grave.Now,Salisbury,for thee,and for the right Of English Henry,shall this night appear How much in duty I am bound to both.[The English scale the walls and cry 'Saint George!a Talbot!']SENTINEL.Arm!arm!The enemy doth make assault.
The French leap o'er the walls in their shirts.Enter,several ways,BASTARD,ALENCON,REIGNIER,half ready and half unready
ALENCON.How now,my lords?What,all unready so?BASTARD.Unready!Ay,and glad we 'scap'd so well.REIGNIER.'Twas time,I trow,to wake and leave our beds,Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.ALENCON.Of all exploits since first I follow'd arms Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise More venturous or desperate than this.BASTARD.I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.REIGNIER.If not of hell,the heavens,sure,favour him ALENCON.Here cometh Charles;I marvel how he sped.
Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE BASTARD.Tut!holy Joan was his defensive guard.CHARLES.Is this thy cunning,thou deceitful dame?Didst thou at first,to flatter us withal,Make us partakers of a little gain That now our loss might be ten times so much?PUCELLE.Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend?At all times will you have my power alike?Sleeping or waking,must I still prevail Or will you blame and lay the fault on me?Improvident soldiers!Had your watch been good This sudden mischief never could have fall'n.CHARLES.Duke of Alencon,this was your default That,being captain of the watch to-night,Did look no better to that weighty charge.ALENCON.Had all your quarters been as safely kept As that whereof I had the government,We had not been thus shamefully surpris'd.BASTARD.Mine was secure.REIGNIER.And so was mine,my lord.CHARLES.And,for myself,most part of all this night,Within her quarter and mine own precinct I was employ'd in passing to and fro About relieving of the sentinels.Then how or which way should they first break in?PUCELLE.Question,my lords,no further of the case,How or which way;'tis sure they found some place But weakly guarded,where the breach was made.And now there rests no other shift but this To gather our soldiers,scatter'd and dispers'd,And lay new platforms to endamage them.
Alarum.Enter an ENGLISH SOLDIER,crying 'A Talbot!A Talbot!'They fly,leaving their clothes behind
SOLDIER.I'll be so bold to take what they have left.The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword;For I have loaden me with many spoils,Using no other weapon but his name.Exit
SCENE 2.ORLEANS.Within the town
Enter TALBOT,BEDFORD,BURGUNDY,a CAPTAIN,and others
BEDFORD.The day begins to break,and night is fled Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth.Here sound retreat and cease our hot pursuit.[Retreat sounded]TALBOT.Bring forth the body of old Salisbury And here advance it in the market-place,The middle centre of this cursed town.Now have I paid my vow unto his soul;For every drop of blood was drawn from him There hath at least five Frenchmen died to-night.And that hereafter ages may behold What ruin happened in revenge of him,Within their chiefest temple I'll erect A tomb,wherein his corpse shall be interr'd;Upon the which,that every one may read,Shall be engrav'd the sack of Orleans,The treacherous manner of his mournful death,And what a terror he had been to France.But,lords,in all our bloody massacre,I muse we met not with the Dauphin's grace,His new-come champion,virtuous Joan of Arc,Nor any of his false confederates.BEDFORD.'Tis thought,Lord Talbot,when the fight began,Rous'd on the sudden from their drowsy beds,They did amongst the troops of armed men Leap o'er the walls for refuge in the field.BURGUNDY.Myself,as far as I could well discern For smoke and dusky vapours of the night,Am sure I scar'd the Dauphin and his trull,When arm in arm they both came swiftly running,Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves That could not live asunder day or night.After that things are set in order here,We'll follow them with all the power we have.