Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/313

1547.] soon as daylight permitted, were fired into from the ships, and were rapidly scattered. The Scots on the other side pushed on in force, intending, evidently, to seize the ridges in the rear, where they would have the advantage of ground, wind, and sun, and, if victorious, would destroy the entire English army.

Their horses they had left behind, their heavy guns they had dragged up by hand, and they were moving with the greatest speed that they could command; but the Protector was in time to alter his dispositions, and secure the hills immediately behind him. His cannon was brought back and placed to cover the ground over which the Scots would pass to attack the camp, and Grey, with the English horse, prepared to charge. The Earl of Angus, with 'the professors of the Gospel,' the heavy pikemen of the Lowlands, eight thousand strong, was leading; Arran was behind on the low ground with ten thousand more; and Huntley, with eight thousand Highlanders and the remains of the Irish, towards the stream, out of range from the fleet. On Angus the brunt of the battle was first to fall. He halted when he discovered that the English intended not to fly but to fight; but he could not fall back; the ground was unfavourable for cavalry—a wet fallow recently turned—and the pikemen formed to receive the charge, the first rank kneeling. Down upon them came Grey, with a heavy plunging gallop, but the horses were without barbs, and the lances were shorter than the Scottish pikes. Down as they closed rolled fifty men and horses, amidst the crash, of breaking spears. Grey himself was