TALBOT, BURGUNDY, LIONEL.
TALBOT
Heavens! What a woman!
LIONEL
Now, brave generals,
Your counsel! Shall we prosecute our flight,
Or turn, and with a bold and sudden stroke
Wipe out the foul dishonor of to-day?
BURGUNDY
We are too weak, our soldiers are dispersed,
The recent terror still unnerves the host.
TALBOT
Blind terror, sudden impulse of a moment,
Alone occasioned our disastrous rout.
This phantom of the terror-stricken brain,
More closely viewed will vanish into air.
My counsel, therefore, is, at break of day,
To lead the army back, across the stream,
To meet the enemy.
BURGUNDY
Consider well——
LIONEL
Your pardon! Here is nothing to consider
What we have lost we must at once retrieve,
Or look to be eternally disgraced.
TALBOT
It is resolved. To-morrow morn we fight,
This dread-inspiring phantom to destroy,
Which thus doth blind and terrify the host
Let us in fight encounter this she-devil.
If she oppose her person to our sword,
Trust me, she never will molest us more;
If she avoid our stroke—and be a**ured
She will not stand the hazard of a battle—
Then is the dire enchantment at an end?
LIONEL
So be it! And to me, my general, leave
This easy, bloodless combat, for I hope
Alive to take this ghost, and in my arms,
Before the ba*tard's eyes—her paramour—
To bear her over to the English camp,
To be the sport and mockery of the host.
BURGUNDY
Make not too sure.
TALBOT.
If she encounter me,
I shall not give her such a soft embrace.
Come now, exhausted nature to restore
Through gentle sleep. At daybreak we set forth.
[They go out.]