Agincourt Quotes
"You don’t need to understand it," Henry of Calais had told him in London, "on account of it not being your goddam business. It’s the goddam French falling out amongst themselves, that’s all you need to know."
"He’s mad, the French king is," Henry of Calais had told Hook in England. "He’s mad as a spavined polecat, the stupid bastard thinks he’s made of glass."
"Bent as a bishop! Can’t shoot with that! Be shooting around corners!"
"I steam them, boy," Wilkinson explained, "then I weights them, and with any luck I straightens them, and then the fledging falls off because of the steam."
"They call themselves archers, but half of them can’t hit a barrel at fifty paces."
"Ever killed a man, Hook?" "Yes." Wilkinson heard the belligerent tone and grinned. "Murder? Battle? Have you ever killed a man in battle?"
"I knew a fellow in Kent who used human bones. He reckoned the skull of a child made the best steel, and perhaps he was right."
"You’ll wish you were in hell if the Frenchies capture you," Smithson said, noticing where Hook was looking.
"I scrape the barrel," Henry of Calais had told Hook before they had left England, "but you look fresh, boy. So what did you do wrong?"
"The truth is he’s got turnips for brains, he does, and he’s fighting against the duke who isn’t mad. He’s got brains for brains."
"It was through woman that sin entered the world."
"I would have thought his silence was eloquence itself."
"You will know the truth, my lord, and the truth will set you free."
"Our lord the king's quarrel with the French is just."
"Put your trust in the yew bow, my boy, and not in any priest's words."
"Hook was at home in the trees, even among these foreign trees."
""Where are we going?" Thomas Scarlet asked. "Top of the hill," Hook answered curtly."
""Quiet," Hook said sharply, "and go faster!""
"Hook waited till the horseman was nearly opposite his hiding place, then leaped down the bank and snatched at the bridle."
""Shut your face," Hook said, and the monk, as if in response, began to shout his protests."
""Our ma fell into a shit-pit once," Tom Scarlet said."
""That’s a pity, Hook. Our king has said he’ll hang any man who hurts a priest, a nun, or a monk."
""Of course you wouldn’t," Sir John said, "he just tumbled out of his saddle, didn’t he?"
""Harfleur," Sir John Cornewaille announced to the archers. "A nest of goddamned pirates!"
""You’re a brave subject," he said lightly. "Rise, Sir Philippe."
""The French send a lad to do their work," he said sourly."
""Did you hit him, Sir John?" Hook asked, playing dumb."
""One bath is enough for any lifetime!" Father Christopher had evidently heard the twins telling their tale."
""She sobered up quick enough," Tom Scarlet went on, "but she couldn’t stop laughing."
""I come from Pontygwaith," he told the archers, "and in Pontygwaith we know more about building things than all you miserable English bastards put together!"
""God didn’t bring us this far to fail!" he shouted confidently. "The town will be ours, fellows, and soon!"
""Putrid stinking prickless rancid bastards," Sir John spat."
""You have crossbows for us?" another voice demanded."
"You’re not going to die," the saint said impatiently, "not if you dig."
"How many others survived?" a man-at-arms asked.
"We have to take this goddam town." - Sir John
"I wasn’t talking to you. What should I do?" - Hook
"God has turned His face from us." - Father Christopher
"The King of England has not come to destroy you! We are good Christians and Harfleur is not Soissons! You have nothing to fear!" - Herald
"Smoke drifted from the city to haze the late summer sky."
"The corpses were still carried to the creeks and thrown to the gulls, and it seemed there would be no end to the sickness."
"A pavilion was erected on the hillside behind the English encampment and a throne was placed under the canopy and draped with cloth of gold."
"Treat them courteously, they fought well! They’re men!"
"We used a pack of wolfhounds to kill a hare."
"God help us," he could not resist saying, and once again he had the shivering recollection of the blood and screams in Soissons.
"Sweet Christ," Tom Scarlet said, "I’ve seen more men at a horse fair."
"Because on the day before we crossed the Somme," Hook said, "the king hanged a man for theft."
"If they move," Evelgold shouted in warning, "we stop, string bows, and plant stakes."
"We fight today because of my quarrel!" the king shouted, his voice clear and confident now. "Our enemy deny me the crown that God has granted me!"
"God is in your bows, God is in your arrows, God is in your weapons, God is in your hearts, and God is in your souls."
"Sir John," he said, "you are dressed to kill."
"Today I fight for your homes, for your wives, for your sweethearts, for your mothers, for your fathers, for your children, for your lives, for your England!"
"The skill of a mounted charge was to start slow, the riders knee to knee, and to advance in that close formation so that the whole line of heavy horses struck the enemy together."
"Arrows!" Hook bellowed, but there were none except the few remaining in the hands of the rearmost archers, and those men saved their missiles.
"Yet now he could hardly move. Each step was a fight against the soil’s suction."
"The arrows were clattering and clashing and banging all around him."
"Just get close, he told himself, just get close and the killing could start."
"He was growling now, though quite unaware of it."
"The enemy would come at a rush and expect to lunge their shortened lances straight at English groins or faces."
"Kill the second man," Sir John went on. "Don’t use your sword. A sword’s no good in this fight. Hammer the bastards down with a poleax."
"God be with you, John," Sir William Porter said nervously."
"Put the second man down, William, and the third can’t reach you without stumbling over two corpses."
"The noise was rising as the enemy shouted their war cries."
"The archers moved deftly in the mud, killing with a horrible efficiency."