Page 208 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

ACT II IT

Scene I IT

Enter [aloft] a [French] Sergeant of a band with two Sentinels.

SERGEANT

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.

FIRST SENTINEL [Exit Sergeant.]

Sergeant, you shall.

Thus are poor servitors, [5]
When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
Constrained to watch in darkness, rain, and cold.

Enter Talbot, Bedford, and Burgundy [and Soldiers], with scaling-
ladders, their drums beating a dead march.

T ALBOT

Lord regent, and redoubted Burgundy,
By whose approach the regions of Artois,
Wallon, and Picardy are friends to us, [10]
This happy night the Frenchmen are secure,
Having all day caroused and banqueted;
Embrace we then this opportunity,
As fitting best to quittance their deceit
Contrived by art and baleful sorcery. [15]

BEDFORD

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!