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 yon corner.

BURGUNDY And I to this.

⌈Exeunt severally Bedford and Burgundy with some soldiers⌉

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.

⌈Talbot and his soldiers⌉ scale the walls

⌈SENTINELS⌉

Arm! Arm! The enemy doth make assault!

ENGLISH SOLDIERS Saint George! A Talbot! Exeunt above

⌈Alarum.⌉ The French ⌈soldiers⌉ leap o’er the walls in their shirts ⌈and exeunt⌉. Enter several ways the Bastard of Orléans, the Duke of Alençon, and René Duke of Anjou, half ready and half unready

ALENÇON

How now, my lords? What, all unready so?

BASTARD

Unready? Ay, and glad we scaped so well.

RENÉ

‘Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds,

Hearing alarums at our chamber doors.

ALENÇON

Of all exploits since first I followed 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.

RENÉ

If not of hell, the heavens sure favour him.

ALENÇON

Here cometh Charles. I marvel how he sped.

Enter Charles the Dauphin and Joan la Pucelle

BASTARD

Tut, holy Joan was his defensive guard.

CHARLES (to Joan)

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?

JOAN

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 Alençon, this was your default,

That, being captain of the watch tonight,

Did look no better to that weighty charge.

ALENÇON

Had all your quarters been as safely kept

As that whereof I had the government,

We had not been thus shamefully surprised.

BASTARD

Mine was secure.

RENÉ 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 employed in passing to and fro

About relieving of the sentinels.

Then how or which way should they first break in?

JOAN

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, scattered and dispersed,

And lay new platforms to endamage them.

Alarum. Enter an English Soldier

ENGLISH SOLDIER A Talbot! A Talbot!

The French fly, leaving their clothes behind

ENGLISH 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 with spoils

2.2 Enter Lord Talbot, the Dukes of Bedford and Burgundy, a Captain, ⌈and soldiers⌉

BEDFORD

The day begins to break and night is fled,

Whose pitchy mantle overveiled the earth.

Here sound retreat and cease our hot pursuit.

Retreat is sounded

TALBOT

Bring forth the body of old Salisbury

And here advance it in the market place,

The middle centre of this cursed town.

⌈Exit one or more⌉

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 tonight.

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 interred—

Upon the which, that everyone may read,

Shall be engraved the sack of Orléans,

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,

Roused 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 scared 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

MESSENGER

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?

TALBOT

Here is the Talbot. Who would speak with him?