keys of the castle on the
coffin of the hero. Du Guesclin lost his first wife in 1371, and
married a second in 1373. His remains were interred, by order of the
king, in the church of St Denis.

HENRY V. OF ENGLAND

Extracts from "Memoirs of Great Commanders," by G. P. R. JAMES

(1388-1422)

[Illustration: Ritter's arms. [TN]]

Henry, the fifth English monarch of that name, was born at Monmouth,
on the banks of the pleasant Wye, in the year 1388. He was the eldest
son of Henry, Earl of Derby, and of Mary de Bohun, daughter of the
Earl of Hereford. During his infancy reverses and successes passed
rapidly over his father's head, and at the age of thirteen years he
found himself the eldest son of the King of England, and was created
by his father Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester.
The early education of Henry the Fifth is unknown; but it may be
inferred, that during the life of his mother, principles of high honor
and virtue had been instilled into his bosom, which became dormant,
though not extinct, as rising toward manhood, evil companions took
advantage of idleness and indulgence to call into action the passions
of the young prince, in order to lead him to their own purposes.

The tales of his debauchery, and the depravity of his taste, while a
youth, have been doubted and contradicted, but not disproved by modern
historians; but the positive assertions of older writers, whose means
of information was great and immediate, must always be more valuable
than the theoretical doubts of persons who live when a thousand
sources of knowledge have been buried under the lumber of ages. It is
therefore more than probable that, in his youth, Henry the Fifth gave
himself up to low companions, unworthy a prince and a gentleman, and
yielded to his passions indulgences which were forbidden by his
reason. Nevertheless, through the whole course of his youthful errors,
as portrayed by those least favorable in their account, there is to be
seen the gleaming forth of those better principles, that nobler soul,
which rendered him in after years one of the greatest and best of
English monarchs.

Out of a multitude of events which might be brought forward to prove
this fact, one of the best authenticated, and the most striking, is
his submission to Chief-justice Gascoigne. Henry, it would appear, had
entered the Court of Justice in support of one of his dissolute
companions, who had rendered himself amenabl