Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/145

A.D. 1513.] rank, the Scottish one of the flower of the nobility and gentlemen of the kingdom. James, irritated at this opposition, said, scornfully, "Angus, if you are afraid, you may be gone." At this, the old earl burst into tears, and replied that, his counsel being despised, and his age forbidding his services on the field, he would withdraw, but would leave his two sons with the vassals of the Douglas, and his prayer that old Angus's foreboding might prove unfounded.

By this time, the 6th of September, the Earl of Surrey had reached Wooller-haugh, within three miles of the Scottish camp. Perceiving the difficulty of the ground betwixt him and them, intersected by several brooks, which united to form the river Till, Surrey anxiously inquired for an experienced guide, and the Bastard Heron, who was following the army, but in disguise, offered his services, at which Surrey was greatly rejoiced, aware that he was intimately familiar with the whole neighbourhood. When Surrey came in sight of the Scottish camp, he was greatly struck with the formidable nature of James's position, and sent a messenger to him charging him with having shifted his ground after having accepted the challenge, and called upon him to come down into the spacious plain of Millfield, where both armies could contend on more equal terms, the army of Surrey only amounting to 25,000 men. James, resenting this accusation, refused to admit the herald to his presence, but sent him word that he had sought no undue advantage, should seek none, and that it did not become an earl to send such a message to a king.

This endeavour to induce James by his high, and often imprudent, sense of honour, to weaken his position, not succeeding, on the 8th, Surrey, at the suggestion of his son, the lord admiral, adopted a fresh stratagem. He marched northward, sweeping round the hill of Flodden, crossed the Till near Twisell Castle, and thus placed the whole of his army between James and Scotland. From that point they directed their march as if intending to cross the Tweed, and enter Scotland. On the morning of Friday, the 9th, leaving their night halt at Barmoor Wood, they continued this course, till the Scots were greatly alarmed lest the English should plunder the fertile country of the Merse, and they implored the king to descend and fight in defence of his country. Moved by these representations, and this being the day on which Surrey had promised to fight him, he ordered his army to set fire to their tents with all the litter and refuse of the camp, so as to make a great smoke, under which they might descend, unperceived, on the English. But no sooner did the English perceive this, than also availing themselves of the obscurity of the smoke, they wheeled about, and made once more for the Till. As the reek blew aside, they were observed in the very act of crossing the narrow bridge of Twisell, and Robert Borthwick, the commander of James's artillery, fell on his knees and implored his sovereign to allow him to turn all the fire of his cannon on the bridge, which he would destroy, and prevent the passage of Surrey's host. But James, with that romantic spirit of chivalry which seems to have possessed him to a degree of insanity, is said to have replied, "Fire one shot on the bridge, and I will command you to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. I will have all my enemies before me, and fight them fairly."

Thus the English host defiled over the bridge at leisure, and drew up in a long double line, consisting of a centre and two wings, with a strong body of cavalry, under Lord Dacre, in the rear. They beheld the Scots, in like form, descending the hill in solemn silence. The two conflicting armies came into action about four o'clock in the afternoon by the mutual discharge of their artillery. The thunder and concussion were terrific, but it was soon seen that the guns of the Scots being placed too high, their balls passed over the heads of their opponents, whilst those of the English, sweeping up the hill, did hideous execution, and made the Scots impatient to come to closer fight. The master gunner of Scotland was soon slain, his men driven from their guns, whilst the shot of the English continued to strike into the very heart of the battle. The loft wing of the Scots, under the Earl of Huntley and Lord Home, came first into contact with the right wing of the English, and fighting on foot with long spears, they charged the enemy with such impetuosity, that Sir Edmund Howard, the commander of that wing, was borne down, his banner flung to the earth, and his lines broken into utter confusion. But at this critical moment Sir Edmund and his division were suddenly succoured by the Bastard Heron, who appeared at the head of a body of daring outlaws, like himself; this movement was supported by the advance of the second division of the English right wing, under the Lord Admiral, who attacked Home and Huntley, and these again were followed by the cavalry of Lord Dacre's reserve.

The Highlanders, under Home and Huntley, when they overthrew Sir Edmund Howard, imagined that they had won the victory, and fell eagerly to stripping and plundering the slain; but they soon found enough to do to defend themselves, and the battle then raged with desperate energy. At length the Scottish left gave way, and the lord admiral and the cavalry of Dacre next fell on the division under the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, both of whom were slain.

In this part of the battle, Lord Home has been accused of not supporting his fellow officers as he ought to have done, but Sir Walter Scott suggests that this, from all that appears, seems merely to have been invented by the Scotch to account for the defeat by some other means than the superiority of the English.

On the extreme right wing of the Scottish army fought the clans of the Macleans, the Mackenzies, the Campbells, and Macleods, under the Earls of Lennox and Argyle. These encountered the stout bowmen of Lancashire and Cheshire, under Sir Edward Stanley, who galled the half-naked Highlanders so intolerably with their arrows, that they flung down their targets, and dashed forward with claymore and axe pell-mell amongst the enemy. The French commissioner, De la Motte, who was present, astounded at this display of wild passion and savage insubordination, assisted by other French officers, shouted, stormed, gesticulated, to check the disorderly rabble, and restrain them in their ranks. In vain! The English, for a moment surprised by this sudden, furious onslaught, yet kept their ranks unbroken, and, advancing like a solid wall, flung back their disintegrated assailants, swept them before them, and dispatched them piece-meal. The Earls of Argyle and Lennox perished in the midst of their unmanageable men.