_Enter_ SIR JOHN FASTOLFE. _Fast._ My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais, To haste unto your coronation,   ·ada010· A letter was deliver’d to my hands, Writ to your grace from the Duke of Burgundy. _Tal._ Shame to the Duke of Burgundy and thee! I vow’d, base knight, when I did meet thee next,   [ada014] To tear the garter from thy craven’s leg,   [ada015] [_Plucking it off._ Which I have done, because unworthily Thou wast installed in that high degree. Pardon me, princely Henry, and the rest:   [ada018] This dastard, at the battle of Patay,   [ada019] When but in all I was six thousand strong   ·ada020· And that the French were almost ten to one, Before we met or that a stroke was given, Like to a trusty squire did run away: In which assault we lost twelve hundred men: Myself and divers gentlemen beside   ·ada025· Were there surprised and taken prisoners. Then judge, great lords, if I have done amiss; Or whether that such cowards ought to wear This ornament of knighthood, yea or no. _Glou_. To say the truth, this fact was infamous   ·ada030· And ill beseeming any common man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader. _Tal_. When first this order was ordain’d, my lords, Knights of the garter were of noble birth, Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage,   ·ada035· Such as were grown to credit by the wars; Not fearing death, nor shrinking for distress, But always resolute in most extremes.   [ada038] He then that is not furnish’d in this sort Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,   ·ada040· Profaning this most honourable order, And should, if I were worthy to be judge, Be quite degraded, like a hedge-born swain That doth presume to boast of gentle blood. _King_. Stain to thy countrymen, thou hear’st thy doom!   ·ada045· Be packing, therefore, thou that wast a knight: Henceforth we banish thee, on pain of death.   [ada047] [_Exit Fastolfe._ And now, my lord protector, view the letter   [ada048] Sent from our uncle Duke of Burgundy. _Glou._ What means his grace, that he hath changed his style?   ·ada050· No more but, plain and bluntly, ‘To the king!’   [ada051] Hath he forgot he is his sovereign? Or doth this churlish superscription Pretend some alteration in good will?   [ada054] What’s here? [_Reads_] ‘I have, upon especial cause,   [ada055] Moved with compassion of my country’s wreck,   [ada056] Together with the pitiful complaints Of such as your oppression feeds upon, Forsaken your pernicious faction And join’d with Charles, the rightful King of France.’   ·ada060· O monstrous treachery! can this be so, That in alliance, amity and oaths, There should be found such false dissembling guile? _King._ What! doth my uncle Burgundy revolt? _Glou._ He doth, my lord, and is become your foe.   [ada065] _King._ Is that the worst this letter doth contain? _Glou._ It is the worst, and all, my lord, he writes.