Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/345

1548.] seeking for such French as were left, were he sick or whole, he was no sooner found but forthwith slain and cut in pieces;' 'whenever one or two French were found apart, they were killed and thrust into holes.' All night the murderous revenge continued; when, shortly before daybreak, a messenger came breathless to the gates, saying that d'Essy had taken Haddington, that a few English only survived, shut up in an isolated bulwark, who had offered to surrender if they might have their lives; but d'Essy had answered they should have no courtesy but death. The news put an end to the massacre; which, if the account was true, might produce unpleasant fruits. The Regent mounted his horse, and rode to the scene of the supposed triumph. At Musselburgh the truth met him in a long file of carts, laden with dead or wounded men.

D'Essy, reaching Haddington at midnight, had surprised the garrison in their beds. The sentinels had but time to give the alarm before they were killed; the watch was driven in, and some of the French entered with them, in the confusion, into the court of the castle. These, seizing the gates and keeping them open, the assailants behind were thronging after them in force, when a cannon, loaded with grapeshot, was fired by an unknown hand into the thick of the crowd, and destroyed a hundred men upon the spot. The check gave the English time to collect. While the attacking party were still reeling under the effect of