| ACT II SCENE I | Before Orleans. | |
| [Enter a Sergeant of a band with 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. | 5 |
[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, | 10 |
| Wallon and Picardy are friends to us, |
| This happy night the Frenchmen are secure, |
| Having all day caroused and banqueted: |
| Embrace we then this opportunity |
| As fitting best to quittance their deceit | 15 |
| Contrived 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. | 20 |
| 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 | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
| 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. | 35 |
| 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. | 40 |
| Sentinels | Arm! arm! the enemy doth make assault! |
| [Cry: 'St. George,' 'A Talbot.'] |
| [
The French leap over the walls in their shirts.
Enter, several ways, the BASTARD OF ORLEANS,
ALENCON, and REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready
] |
| ALENCON | How now, my lords! what, all unready so? |
| BASTARD OF ORLEANS | Unready! ay, and glad we 'scaped so well. |
| REIGNIER | 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, |
| Hearing alarums at our chamber-doors. | 45 |
| 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 OF ORLEANS | I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell. |
| REIGNIER | If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him. | 50 |
| ALENCON | Here cometh Charles: I marvel how he sped. |
| BASTARD OF ORLEANS | Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard. |
| [Enter CHARLES and JOAN LA PUCELLE] |
| CHARLES | Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? |
| Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal,
|
| Make us partakers of a little gain, | 55 |
| That now our loss might be ten times so much? |
| JOAN LA 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? | 60 |
| 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. | 65 |
| ALENCON | Had all your quarters been as safely kept |
| As that whereof I had the government, |
| We had not been thus shamefully surprised. |
| BASTARD OF ORLEANS | Mine was secure. |
| REIGNIER | And so was mine, my lord. | 70 |
| 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? | 75 |
| JOAN LA 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 dispersed, | 80 |
| 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. | 85 |
| [Exit] |
The Essential Student History Quiz (with answers and illustrations)