e mystery play the
scene of this act is laid before Orleans. The French are determined to
defend their city to the last; the English are determined on taking
it. We are in front of the besieged and the besiegers. Salisbury has
entered the Tournelles, and he looks out over the city from a window
in the tower. Glansdale ('Glassidas') stands beside him, and says to
Salisbury, 'Look to your right, and to your left--it looks like a
terrestrial paradise, all this country flowing with milk and honey;
you will soon be its master.' Salisbury expresses his satisfaction at
the sight of all the plunder at his feet, and gives vent to some very
sanguinary sentiments about the French; he will slay every one in the
place--all the men, 'et leurs femmes et leurs enfants. Personne je
n'epargnerai.' But scarcely has he been able to give vent to this
terrible threat when his head is carried off by a cannon ball fired
from the town. The English cry out 'Ha! Hay! maudite journee!'

Earl Salisbury is carried out stiff and stark. Talbot and the other
English officers now vow vengeance on the French in these words:--

'Ha, Sallebery, noble coraige!
Ta mort nous sera vendue chere,
Jamais un tel de ton paraige,
Ne se trouvera en frontiere.'

If we turn to Scene 4 of the first act of Shakespeare's First Part of
_King Henry VI._, we shall find almost the same scene enacted.

Enter on the turrets, Lord Salisbury, Talbot, etc. Salisbury, after
welcoming Talbot, calls on Sir William Glansdale to look down into the
town, and while conversing the shot is fired which kills Salisbury.
After the death of Salisbury, Talbot vows vengeance on the French, and
says he will

'Nero-like
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.'

There can be little doubt that whoever wrote the First Part of _King
Henry VI._ had seen the mystery play of the _Siege of Orleans_ acted
in that town. This brings one to the much debated question, 'Who wrote
the First Part of _King Henry VI._?'

There can be no doubt that Shakespeare had studied both Hall's and
Holinshed's chronicles. The former styled Joan of Arc 'a monstrous
woman,' and also suggested that fine passage beginning 'Why ring not
the bells throughout the town?' We are of those who would wish to
believe that our greatest poet had but little hand in delineating the
French heroine of all time as she is described in Hall and in
Holinshed, and to believe that he