The Battle Of Agincourt

Chapter one, the chanting in the distance.

Gillian is an archer in charge of King Henry the Fifth. The time is 9 o'clock pm on the 22 October
1415. Henry had crossed the English Channel with 11,000 men and laid siege to Harfleur in
Normandy. After five weeks the town surrendered, but Henry lost half his men to disease and battle casualties. Gillian, however was one of the lucky ones. Henry decided to march his army northeast to Agincourt , where they would meet the French soldiers and take Castle Agincourt. Or at least that was the plan...

Gillian has been an archer in command of King Henry the Fifth for 3 months and he is 16 years old. This was his first battle, he was proud, finally joining the English army. He is on role-call about five miles north from Harfleur."Attention!" That was General Humphrey, leading commander of the elite archers (including Gillian). "Now soldiers, what is our mission!" General Humphrey continued.
"To obey!" The rest shouted.
"Gillian! State the objective!"
"To capture castle Agincourt sir!" Gillian said with no delay.
"Very good." Then General Humphrey went on with role-call.Gillian was afraid of General Humphrey, he was a 6 foot man (which was the tallest in the pack) with black short hair, he had a moustache. He has been in the army for 40 years and was an old, cranky man. Even with this personality everyone looked up to him, including Gillian. The pack was stationed on a sand dune north from Harfleur, about 5 miles.

After the regiment packed up there tents they started to head of in front of the infantry. The journey won't be as long as before because Humphrey and his regiment were only 10 or so miles from the castle which Gillian quite liked. About halfway through the journey Humphrey raised his hand for his men to stop, Gillian was confused . They heard chanting in the distance. Gillian raised his bow and approached the hill that seperated him from the chanting. He looked over the hill with an arrow ready to fire. Sweat was dripping down from his ear. It was the french, thousands of them. At least 11 thousand french soldiers stood in front of Humphrey and his men.

Humphrey decided to tell his men to stand down (which he has never done before).
"Gillian, go back and tell King Henry the Fifth about the army."
"In all do respect sir, King Henry the Fifth and his infantry will be here soon. About 20 minutes so we should just stay here and keep an eye on them before the reinforcements arrive."
Gillian explained, whilst the chanting goes on in the background, oblivious of the English troops.
"Good job soldier, we will wait for King Henry the Fifth to arrive before we advance on the troops. Even if we advance we will have to stay the night for the troops to rest so let's make tents just out of range of them seeing."
Humphrey explained.

And so they did. Whilst they were setting up tents about a mile from the hill Gillian felt that he was not alone. He walked over to the bushes that were near the camp site whilst the rest were having dinner. He raised his bow with a arrow in his hand. The sound stopped. Having looked around knowing no one was there he went back to the camp site. He walked into Humphrey's tent to report and no one was there. Knowing that he would be in trouble if he was caught in the Generals tent he started walking to leave. On his way out he noticed there was a peice of parchment on his desk labeled 'battle plans'. He lent over, knowing what he was doing was wrong. 'We will approach castle Agincourt and then we will attack the army. After we have captured the outer walls we will approach the village and enslave the citizens, innocent or not.'
"This is horrible." He whispered in response to the words he was reading.
'Then after we have captured them we will chain them up and one by one we will exicute them.' Gillian put back the paper, astonished on what he had read. After that Gillian went back to his tent, thinking about the war.

The next morning role-call was made.
"Now soldiers, after extensive thinking we are going to sent individuals to guard the hill and make sure the French don't know we're here. Gillian, you go first."
Humphrey said.
"Yes sir."
He replied.
And so he did. Gillian was glad he was chosen first, it gave him time to think. The chanting went on. Gillian thourt about what he had seen in the tent. Is he prepared to kill thousands? Do the french villagers know that in a matter of days that they will never see there family again. Or sit down to have dinner. Or to even see close friends.
"Gillian! Respond!"
"Yes sir!"
He replied quickly, knowing that he was day dreaming on the job.
"The king is here, he wants to see you."
Humphrey said.
"Me? There must be a mistake."
Gillian said in disbelief.
"Well he is expecting you in 5 minutes so if I was you I would go, one of the kings guards will take you spot. Follow me."
He explained. And so they walked over to the camp and to Gillian's surprise the hole army was there.