render them more easy and amiable, even with men of note who were
necessary to him. Marshal Isle-Adam one day went to see him in camp on
war-business. The king considered that he did not present himself with
sufficient ceremony. "Isle-Adam," said he, "is that the robe of a
marshal of France?" "Sir, I had this whity-gray robe made to come hither
by water aboard of Seine-boats." "Ha!" said the king, "look you a prince
in the face when you speak to him?" "Sir, it is the custom in France,
that when one man speaks to another, of whatever rank and puissance that
other may be, he passes for a sorry fellow, and but little honorable, if
he dares not look him in the face." "It is not our fashion," said the
king; and the subject dropped there. A popular poet of the time, Alan
Chattier, constituted himself censor of the moral corruption and
interpreter of the patriotic paroxysms caused by the cold and harsh
supremacy of this unbending foreigner, who set himself up for king of
France, and had not one feeling in sympathy with the French. Alan
Chartier's _Quadriloge invectif_ is a lively and sometimes eloquent
allegory, in which France personified implores her three children, the
clergy, the chivalry, and the people, to forget their own quarrels and
unite to save their mother whilst saving themselves; and this political
pamphlet getting spread about amongst the provinces did good service to
the national cause against the foreign conqueror. An event more powerful
than any human eloquence occurred to give the _dauphin_ and his partisans
earlier hopes. Towards the end of August, 1422, Henry V. fell ill; and,
too stout-hearted to delude himself as to his condition, he thought no
longer of anything but preparing himself for death. He had himself
removed to Vincennes, called his councillors about him, and gave them his
last royal instructions. "I leave you the government of France," said he
to his brother, the Duke of Bedford, "unless our brother of Burgundy have
a mind to undertake it; for, above all things, I conjure you not to have
any dissension with him. If that should happen God preserve you from it!