154 THE BLACK PRINCE'S RUBY.
wards
carried him to the grave. The Ruby, large and splendid though it be,
was dearly bought at such a price. Don Pedro was stabbed to the heart a
few years afterwards by his victorious brother Henry, as he knelt
before him praying for mercy. Here the curtain falls upon the first
scene in the drama of our Ruby.
It
rises again on the field of Agincourt, October 25, 1415. Henry v. of
England, with his army reduced to fifteen thousand men, was falling
back upon Calais from Harfleur when at Agincourt he encountered the
French king and his nobility followed by an army of nearly fifty
thousand men. The night before the battle Henry spent * in disposing
his forces to the best advantage, and on the morning he arrayed himself
with a gorgeousness which has been commented upon by all contemporary
writers. It was the fashion for kings to go splendidly into battle, and
for a iandsome young king of twenty-five like Henry it was only natural
that he should follow such a fashion to the fullest. His armor was gilt-
