aae
SCENE V. The same.
Here an Alarum again: and TALBOT pursueth the DAUPHIN, and driveth him: then enter JOAN
LA PUCELLE, driving Englishmen before her, and exit after them: then re-enter TALBOT.
♦
Tal. Where is my strength, my valour, and my force?
Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them;
♦A woman clad in armour chaseth them.
Re-enter LA PUCELLE.
Here, here she comes. I’ll have a bout with thee;
5Devil or devil’s dam, I’ll conjure thee:
Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,
And straightway give thy soul to him thou servest.
Puc. Come, come, ’tis only I that must disgrace thee.
[Here they fight.
♦
Tal. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?
10My breast I’ll burst with straining of my courage
And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder,
But I will chastise this high-minded strumpet.
[They fight again.
Puc.
Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come:
♦
I must go victual Orleans forthwith.
[A short alarum: then
enter the town with soldiers.
15
O’ertake me, if thou canst; I scorn thy strength.
♦
Go, go, cheer up thy hungry-starved men;
Help Salisbury to make his testament:
This day is ours, as many more shall be.
[Exit.
Tal. My thoughts are whirled like a potter’s wheel;
20I know not where I am, nor what I do:
A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,
Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists:
So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench
Are from their hives and houses driven away.
25They call’d us for our fierceness English dogs;
♦
Now, like to whelps, we crying run away.
[A short alarum.
Hark, countrymen! either renew the fight,
Or tear the lions out of England’s coat;
Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions’ stead:
30Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf,
Or horse or oxen from the leopard,
As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves.
[Alarum. Here another skirmish.
It will not be: retire into your trenches:
You all consented unto Salisbury’s death,
35For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.
Pucelle is enter’d into Orleans,
In spite of us or aught that we could do.
O, would I were to die with Salisbury!
The shame hereof will make me hide my head.
[Exit Talbot. Alarum; retreat; flourish.