The Clever Thing to Do Would Be to Make This Title an Epigraph, but Alas, No Such Title Is Readily Apparent

The Last of the Mohicans makes consistent use of epigraphs, opening every chapter with one, often taken from Shakespeare or Gray. In this vein, chapter XV opens with an excerpt from Shakespeare's Henry V. Taken from the end of act 1, scene ii, this passage is spoken by the Archbishop of Canterbury as he and the Bishop of Ely go to join the king in his meeting with the French Ambassador, with the intent of spurring Henry into a war with France. While chapter XV does also deal with an ambassadorial meeting with the French, the situation is nearly the reverse.

Setting aside the superficial detail that it is an English ambassador going to meet the French, the major reversal from Henry V comes from an attempt to end the siege against the English troops through surrender. The English are in a very different position, one of weakness, rather than strength, trying merely to survive, rather than trying to win. The war is not beginning, it is ending.

The epigraph is thus not an accurate predictor of events, creating an irony. It is obvious that the relative timing do not line up, as the reader knows full well that the war is not in it's infancy. It may however create the impression that the British may be able to take a position of strength through their negotiations, which of course shall not be the case.

Or it may have simply been chosen due to the connection of an ambassadorial meeting between the French and the British.