Now in Southampton, Bedford (the king's brother), Exeter (the king's uncle), and Westmoreland are discussing the conspirators—Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey—who, for a price, are planning to kill the king. The king, however, is aware of the plot and those behind it.
Henry, Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey enter and begin to discuss the support and loyalty which the king has among his subjects. And as if to illustrate Henry's deserved loyalty to his goodness and wisdom, Shakespeare has Henry order a man who committed a minor offense the day before to be released from prison. Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey argue that the king must set an example and prosecute the offender to the full extent of the law, but the king argues for mercy and pardons the offender, explaining that if he punishes severely for petty crimes, how shall he punish major crimes? Henry then shows the three men some papers which prove that he knows about their plot. Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey each confess and ask him for mercy.
Henry, answering them in a moving and bitter speech, says first that these three who expressed no compassion for the minor law-breaker deserve none now for themselves; he then speaks of the ideal of loyalty and the crime of betrayal. The treachery of Lord Scroop, who "knew'st the very bottom of my soul, / That almost mightst have coined me into gold" and who betrayed Henry for a price, is the most incredible. Henry cannot understand why these three so-called old friends have plotted against him for nothing more than French gold. He questions how he can trust any man if these three whom he thought were most loyal could betray him. But compassionately he says:
I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of man.
(140-42)
He then orders their arrest for high treason against the crown.
Exeter arrests the three, and they tell the king they are ready to die for their crimes; they ask him to forgive them, and each asserts that he is glad that their plan has been uncovered. Henry, in words that suggest his greatness as a magistrate, says that he holds no personal grudge ("Touching our person seek we no revenge"), but the safety of the nation is at hand. He therefore pronounces the sentence:
Hear your sentence.
You have conspired against our royal person
Join'd with a proclaimed enemy and from his coffers
Received the golden earnest of our death . . .
Therefore, get you hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death.
(166-78)
Then, exhibiting further the qualities of mature kingship, he turns his attention immediately to matters of state and prepares for the embarkation to France.
