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THE SEA. 



of the captains was summoned, and an order issued that no one, under pain of death, 

 should land before the king, but that all should be in readiness to go ashore the next 

 morning. This was done, and the bulk of the army, stated to have comprised 24,000 

 archers, and 6,000 men of arms, was landed in small vessels, boats, and skiffs, taking 

 up a position on the hill nearest to Harfleur. The moment Henry landed he fell on his 

 knees and implored the Divine aid and protection to lead him on to victory, then conferring 

 knighthood on many of his followers. At the entrance of the port a chain had been 

 stretched between two large, well-armed towers, while it was farther protected by stakes 

 and trunks of trees to prevent the vessels from approaching. During the siege, which 

 lasted thirty-six days, the fleet blockaded the port, and at its conclusion Henry, flushed 

 with a victory, which is said to have cost the English only 1,600 and the enemy 10,000 

 lives, determined to march his army through France to Calais. It was on this march 

 that he won the glorious battle of Agincourt. On the 16th of November he embarked 

 for Dover, reaching that port the same day. Here a magnificent ovation awaited him. 

 The burgesses rushed into the sea and bore him ashore on their shoulders; the whole 

 population was intoxicated with delight. One chronicler states that 

 the passage across had been extremely boisterous, and that the 

 French noblemen suffered so much from sea-sickness that they 

 considered the trip worse than the very battles themselves in 

 which they had been taken prisoners ! When Henry arrived near 

 London, a great concourse of people met him at Blackheath, and 

 he, " as one remembering from whom all victories are sent/' would 

 not allow his helmet to be carried before him, whereon the people 

 might have seen the blows and dents that he had received ; " neither 

 would he suffer any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels 

 of his glorious victory, for that he would have the praise and 

 thanks altogether given to God/' 



Next year the French attempted to retake Harfleur. Henry sent a fleet of 400 sail 

 to the rescue, under his brother John, Duke of Bedford, the upshot being that almost 

 the whole French fleet, to the number of 500 ships, hulks, carracks, and small vessels 

 were taken or sunk. The English vessels remained becalmed in the roadstead for three 

 weeks afterwards. Southey, who has collated all the best authorities in his admirable 

 naval work,* says : " The bodies which had been thrown overboard in the action, or 

 sunk in the enemies' ships, rose and floated about them in great numbers; and the 

 English may have deemed it a relief from the contemplation of that ghastly sight, to be 

 kept upon the alert by some galleys, which taking advantage of the calm, ventured as 

 near them as they dare by day and night, and endeavoured to burn the ships with 

 wildfire." He adds that the first mention of wildfire he had found is by Hardyng, one of 

 the earliest of our poets, in the following passage referring to this event : 



" With oars many about us did they wind, 

 With wildfire oft assayled us day and night, 

 To brenne our ships in that they could or might." 



* " The British Admirals : with an Introductory View of the Naval History of England." 



KEVERSE OF THE SEAL OP 

 SANDWICH. 



