and his council adhered to their former offers.

On the 16th of April, 1415, Henry announced to a grand council of spiritual and temporal peers, assembled at Westminster, his determination "of setting out in person to go and, by God's grace, recover his heritage." He appointed one of his brothers, the Duke of Bedford, to be regent in his absence, and the peers, ecclesiastical and laical, applauded his design, promising him their sincere co-operation.

Thus France, under a poor mad king and amidst civil dissensions of the most obstinate character, found the question renewed for her of French versus English king-ship and national independence versus foreign conquest.
On the 14th of August, 1415, an English fleet, having on board, together with King Henry V., six thousand men-at-arms, twenty-four thousand archers, powerful war-machines, and a multitude of artisans and "small folk," came to land near Harfleur, not far from the mouth of the Seine.
It was the most formidable expedition that had ever issued from the ports of England.

The English spent several days in effecting their landing and setting up their siege-train around the walls of the city.

"It would have been easy," says the monk of St.Denis, "to hinder their operations, and the inhabitants of the town and neighborhood would have worked thereat with zeal, if they had not counted that the nobility of the district and the royal army commanded by the constable, Charles d'Albret, would come to their aid." No one came.