BOY.
Father, I warrant you; take you no care;
I’ll never trouble you if I may spy them.
[Exit.]
Enter, on the turrets, Salisbury and Talbot, Sir William Glansdale, Sir Thomas Gargrave and others.
SALISBURY.
Talbot, my life, my joy, again return’d!
How wert thou handled, being prisoner?
Or by what means got’st thou to be releas’d?
Discourse, I prithee, on this turret’s top.
TALBOT.
The Duke of Bedford had a prisoner
Call’d the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles;
For him was I exchanged and ransomed.
But with a baser man of arms by far
Once in contempt they would have barter’d me,
Which I disdaining scorn’d, and craved death
Rather than I would be so vile-esteem’d.
In fine, redeem’d I was as I desired.
But O, the treacherous Fastolf wounds my heart,
Whom with my bare fists I would execute
If I now had him brought into my power.
SALISBURY.
Yet tell’st thou not how thou wert entertain’d.
TALBOT.
With scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts.
In open market-place produced they me
To be a public spectacle to all.
Here, said they, is the terror of the French,
The scarecrow that affrights our children so.
Then broke I from the officers that led me,
And with my nails digg’d stones out of the ground
To hurl at the beholders of my shame.
My grisly countenance made others fly;
None durst come near for fear of sudden death.
In iron walls they deem’d me not secure;
So great fear of my name ’mongst them were spread
That they supposed I could rend bars of steel
And spurn in pieces posts of adamant.
Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had,
That walk’d about me every minute while;
And if I did but stir out of my bed,
Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.
Enter the Boy with a linstock.
SALISBURY.
I grieve to hear what torments you endured,
But we will be revenged sufficiently.
Now it is supper-time in Orleans.
Here, through this grate, I count each one
And view the Frenchmen how they fortify.
Let us look in; the sight will much delight thee.
Sir Thomas Gargrave and Sir William Glansdale,
Let me have your express opinions
Where is best place to make our battery next.
GARGRAVE.
I think, at the north gate, for there stand lords.