Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald; 60
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight.
If they'll do neither, we will come to them, 64
And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings.
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
And not a man of them that we shall take 68
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.
Enter Montjoy.
Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.
K. Hen. How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not 72
That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom?
Com'st thou again for ransom?
Mont.No, great king.
I come to thee for charitable licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field 76
To book our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men;
For many of our princes—woe the while!—
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood; 80
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, 84
Killing them twice. O! give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety and dispose
63 void: leave
65 skirr: scurry
73 fin'd: fixed as the price to be paid
77 book: record
81 vulgar: common soldiers
84 Yerk: strike
