name, and whose birth was celebrated by
rejoicings no less pompous, and no less sincere, at Paris than at
London. The infant prince seemed to be universally regarded as the
future heir of both monarchies.

{1422.} But the glory of Henry, when it had nearly reached the summit,
was stopped short by the hand of nature; and all his mighty projects
vanished into smoke. He was seized with a fistula, a malady which the
surgeons at that time had not skill enough to cure; and he was at last
sensible that his distemper was mortal, and that his end was approaching
He sent for his brother the duke of Bedford, the earl of Warwick, and
a few noblemen more, whom he had honored with his friendship; and he
delivered to them, in great tranquillity, his last will with regard to
the government of his kingdom and family. He entreated them to continue
towards his infant son the same fidelity and attachment which they had
always professed to himself during his lifetime, and which had been
cemented by so many mutual good offices. He expressed his indifference
on the approach of death; and though he regretted that he must leave
unfinished a work so happily begun, he declared himself confident that
the final acquisition of France would be the effect of their prudence
and valor. He left the regency of that kingdom to his elder brother, the
duke of Bedford; that of England to his younger, the duke of Glocester;
and the care of his son's person to the earl of Warwick. He recommended
to all of them a great attention to maintain the friendship of the
duke of Burgundy; and advised them never to give liberty to the French
princes taken at Azincour, till his son were of age, and could himself
hold the reins of government. And he conjured them, if the success of
their arms should not enable them to place young Henry on the throne
of France, never at least to make peace with that kingdom, unless the
enemy, by the cession of Normandy, and its annexation to the crown
of England, made compensation for all the hazard and expense of his
enterprise.[*]

He next applied himself to his devotions, and ordered his chaplain
to recite the seven penitential psalms. When that passage of the
fifty-first psalm was read, "build thou the walls of Jerusalem," he
interrupted the chaplain, and declared his serious intention, after
he should have fully subdued France, to conduct a crusade against the
infidels, and recover possession of the Holy Land.[**] So ingenious are
men