his rear by
the reduction of Lower Normandy, his earlier occupation of Harfleur
severed the town from the sea, and his conquest of Pont-de-l'Arche cut it
off from relief on the side of Paris. Slowly but steadily the king drew
his lines of investment round the doomed city; a flotilla was brought up
from Harfleur, a bridge of boats thrown over the Seine above the town, the
deep trenches of the besiegers protected by posts, and the desperate
sallies of the garrison stubbornly beaten back. For six months Rouen held
resolutely out, but famine told fast on the vast throng of country folk
who had taken refuge within its walls. Twelve thousand of these were at
last thrust out of the city gates, but the cold policy of the conqueror
refused them passage, and they perished between the trenches and the
walls. In the hour of their agony women gave birth to infants, but even
the new-born babes which were drawn up in baskets to receive baptism were
lowered again to die on their mothers' breasts. It was little better
within the town itself. As winter drew on one-half of the population
wasted away. "War," said the terrible king, "has three handmaidens ever
waiting on her, Fire, Blood, and Famine, and I have chosen the meekest
maid of the three." But his demand of unconditional surrender nerved the
citizens to a resolve of despair; they determined to fire the city and
fling themselves in a mass on the English lines; and Henry, fearful lest
his prize should escape him at the last, was driven to offer terms. Those
who rejected a foreign yoke were suffered to leave the city, but his
vengeance reserved its victim in Alan Blanchard, and the brave patriot was
at Henry's orders put to death in cold blood.

[Sidenote: Death of Henry the Fifth]

A few sieges completed the reduction of Normandy. The king's designs were
still limited to the acquisition of that province; and pausing in his
career of conquest, he strove to win its loyalty by a remission of
taxation and a redress of grievances, and to seal its possession by a
formal peace with the French Crown. The conferences however which were
held for this purpose at Pontoise in 1419 failed through the temporary
reconciliation of the French factions, while the length and expense of the
war began to rouse remonstrance and discontent at home. The king's
difficulties were at their height when the assassination of John of
Burgundy at Montereau in the very presence of the Dauphin with whom he had
co