archers were left to garrison
Harfleur; that great numbers had cowardly deserted the King, and
returned home by stealth; and that after all these deductions, not
more than nine hundred lances and five thousand archers remained
fit for service.

Hume, in his History of England, relates that "King Henry landed
near Harfleur, at the head of an army of 6,000 men-at-arms, and
24,000 foot, mostly archers. He immediately began the siege of
that place, which was valiantly defended by d'Estoueleville, and
under him by de Guitri, de Gaucourt, and others of the French
nobility; but as the garrison was weak, and the fortifications in
bad repair, the governor was at last obliged to capitulate, and he
promised to surrender the place if he received no succour before
the 18th of September. The day came, and there was no appearance
of a French army to relieve him. Henry, taking possession of the
town, placed a garrison in it, and expelled all the French
inhabitants, with an intention of peopling it anew with English.
The fatigues of this siege, and the unusual heat of the season,
had so wasted the English army, that Henry could enter on no
farther enterprise, and was obliged to think of returning to
England. He had dismissed his transports, which could not anchor
in an open road upon the enemy's coasts, and he lay under a
necessity of marching by land to Calais before he could reach a
place of safety. A numerous French army of 14,000 men at-arms, and
40,000 foot, was by this time assembled in Normandy, under the
constable d'Albret, a force which, if prudently conducted, was
sufficient either to trample down the English in the open field,
or to harass and reduce to nothing their small army before they
could finish so long and difficult a march. Henry, therefore,
cautiously offered to sacrifice his conquest of Harfleur for a
safe passage to Calais; but his proposal being rejected, he
determined to make his way by valour and conduct through all the
opposition of the enemy."]

[Footnote IIIc.5: _----linstock_] The staff to which the match is
fixed when ordnance is fired.]

[Footnote IIIc.6: _Or close the wall up with our English dead!_]
i.e. re-enter the breach you have made, or fill it up with your
own dead bodies.]

[Footnote IIIc.7: _Whose blood is +fet+_] To fet is an obsolete