Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel; I know not where I am, nor what I do :

A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,

Drives back our troops, and conquers as she lists:
So bees with smoke, and doves with noisome stench,
Are from their hives, and houses, driven away.
They call'd us, for our fierceness, English dogs;
Now, like to whelps, we crying run away.

[A short alarum.
Hark, countrymen ! either renew the fight,
Or tear the lions out of England's coat;
Renounce your soil, give sheep in lion's stead:
Sheep run not half so timorous from the wolf,
Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard,
As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.-

[Alarum. Another Skirmish.

It will not be :-Retire into your trenches:
You all consented unto Salisbury's death,

For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.-
Pucelle is entered into Orleans,

In spite of us, or aught that we could do.

O, would I were to die with Salisbury!

The shame hereof will make me hide my head.

[Alarum. Retreat. Exeunt TALBOT and his

SCENE VI.

Forces, c.

The same. Enter, on the walls, PUCELLE, CHARLES, REIG NIER, ALENCON, and Soldiers.

Puc. Advance our waving colours on the walls: Rescu'd is Orleans from the English wolves :Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. Char. Divinest creature, bright Astræa's daughter, How shall I honour thee for this success?

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens,

That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next.
France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess !—
Recover'd is the town of Orleans:

More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state..

Reig. Why ring not out the bells throughout the town? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, And feast and banquet in the open streets, To celebrate the joy that God hath given us.

Alen. All France will be replete with mirth and joy, When they shall hear how we have play'd the men.

3* VOL. V.

Char. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won;
For which, I will divide my crown with her:
And all the priests and friars in my realm
Shall, in procession, sing her endless praise.
A statelier pyramis to her I'll rear,
Than Rhodope's, or Memphis', ever was:
In memory of her, when she is dead,
Her ashes, in an urn more precious
Than the rich-jewel'd coffer of Darius,7
Transported shall be at high festivals
Before the kings and queens of France.
No longer on Saint Dennis will we cry,
But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint.
Come in; and let us banquet royally,
After this golden day of victory.

SCENE 1.-The same.

ACT II.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Enter to the Gates, a French Serjeant, and two Sentinels.

Serj. 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.

1 Sent. Serjeant, you shall. [Exit Serjeant.] 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 scal-
ing ladders; their drums beating a dead march.

Tal. Lord regent,-and redoubted Burgundy,-
By whose approach, the regions of Artois,
Walloon, and Picardy, are friends to us,—
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,

[6] Rhodope was a famous strumpet, who acquired great riches by her trade. The east but most finished of the Egyptian pyramids (says Pliny, in the 56th Book of his Natural History, ch. xii.) was built by her. She s said af terwards to have married Psammerichus, king of Egypt Dr. Johnson thinks that the Dauphin means to call Joan of Arc a strumpet, all the while he is making this loud praise of her. STEEV.

7 When Alexander the Great took the city of Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius treasured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful little chest or casket, and asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up in it. When they had severally delivered their opinions, he told them, heste med nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliad. THEOBALD.

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.

Bed 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.

Bur. Traitors have never other company.

But what's that Pucelle, whom they term so pure?
Tal. A maid, they say.

Bed. A maid! and be so martial!

Bur. Pray God, she prove not masculine ere long ; If underneath the standard of the French,

She carry armour, as she hath begun.

Tal. Well, let them practice and converse with spirits:
God is our fortress; in whose conquering name,
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.

Bed. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee,
Tal. 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.
Bed. Agreed; I'll to yon corner.

Bur. And I to this.

Tal. 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, crying St. George ! a Talbot! and all enter by the town.

Sent. [Within.] Arm, arm! the enemy doth make

assault !

The French leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, half ready, and half unready.

Alen. How now, my lords? what, all unready so? Bast. Unready? ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well. Reig. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.

Alen. Of all exploits, since first I follow'd arms, Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprize

More venturous, or desperate than this.

[8] Unready was the current word in those times for undressed. JOHNS.

Bast. I think, this Talbot be a fiend of hell.

Reig. If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him. Alen. Here cometh Charles; I marvel, how he sped. Enter CHARLES, and LA PUCELLE.

Bast. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard. Char. 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?

Puc. 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.
Char. Duke of Alençon, this was your default;
That, being captain of the watch to-night,
Did look no better to that weighty charge.

Alen. Had all your quarters been as safely kept,
As that whereof I had the government,

We had not been thus shamefully surpris'd.
Bast. Mine was secure.

Reig. And so was mine, my lord.

Char. 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 ?
Puc. 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.

Sol. 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.

[9] Platforms-That is plans, schemes. STEEV.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

Orleans. Within the town. Enter TALBOT, BED-
FORD, BURGUNDY, a Captain, and others.
Bed. 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

Tal. Bring forth the body of old Salisbury;
And here advance it in the market-piace,
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 happen'd 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.

Bed. '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.

Bur. 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.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. All hail, my lords! which of this princely train Call ye the warlike Talbot, for his acts

So much applauded through the realm of France?

Tal. Here is the Talbot; who would speak with him? Mes. The virtuous lady, countess of Auvergne,