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The 5th we found three French ships at anchor: One called La Foi of Harfleur of 200 tons, the second the Venturuse of Harfleur of 100, and third the Mulet de Batville of Rouen of 120 tons. On nearing them, we in the Minion were determined to lay the admiral on board, while the Christopher boarded the vice-admiral, and the Tiger the smallest.
Sir Eustace was suffering somewhat from the effects of a fever, the seeds of which he had contracted in France, and he accordingly sent his contingent, thirty archers and as many men-at-arms, under the command of Guy. "I had hoped that we had done with Harfleur," Long Tom said as they started on their march to the seaport.
The French Court, on the other hand, offered him her hand with Aquitaine and the money, an offer rejected instantly; and Henry made ready for a rough wooing in arms. In 1415 he crossed to Harfleur, and while parties still fought in France, after a long and exhausting siege, took the place; thence he rode northward for Calais, feeling his army too much reduced to attempt more.
Yet he was prudent, conciliatory, and willing to wait; and as the English power in France that triangle of which the base was the sea-line from Harfleur to Calais, and the apex Paris was unnatural and far from being really strong; and as the relations between Bedford and Burgundy might not always be friendly, the man who could wait had many chances in his favour.
After referring to the "odious and horrible language that runneth through the land almost in every common mouth, sounding to my highest charge and most heaviest slander," he reminded the King that his father had died in the siege of Harfleur, and his eldest brother at Agincourt; that two other brothers were killed at the battle of Jargeau, where he himself had been taken prisoner and had to pay L20,000 ransom; that while his fourth brother was hostage for him he died in the enemy's hands; and that he had borne arms for the King's father and himself "thirty-four winters," and had "abided in the war in France seventeen years without ever seeing this land."
On the refusal of this demand, he renewed the claim of his greatgrandfather to the crown of France, although he was not the eldest descendant of Edward III. Henry invaded France at the head of fifty thousand men. By his artillery and mines he took Harfleur, but not until after a terrible siege in which thousands of his troops perished by sickness.
The houses along the quay have a most paintable appearance, their overhanging floors and innumerable windows forming a picturesque background to the fishing-boats. Harfleur, on the same side of the river as Havre, is on the road to Tancarville. We pass through it on our way to Caudebec.
He took, however, no measures whatever to prepare for the coming storm, and although the Duke of Burgundy despatched a fleet to blockade Harfleur, where Warwick was fitting out his expedition, and actually sent the name of the port at which the Earl intended to land if his fleet managed to escape from Harfleur, Edward continued carelessly to spend his time in pleasure and dissipation, bestowing his full confidence upon the Archbishop of York and the Marquis of Montague, both brothers of the Earl of Warwick.
On the 14th of August, 1415, an English fleet, having on board, together with King Henry V., six thousand men-at-arms, twenty-four thousand archers, powerful war-machines, and a multitude of artisans and "small folk," came to land near Harfleur, not far from the mouth of the Seine. It was the most formidable expedition that had ever issued from the ports of England.
We could now see plainly that the rocks were not along the shore, but at some distance off to sea, and about 5 leagues farther south we saw a great bay, being then in lat. 4° 27' N. The 16th we met a French ship belonging to Harfleur, which robbed our pinnace: we sent a letter by him. This night we saw another spot on the sun at his going down.
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