ill fill up the gaps
in our ranks, and be a great assistance, should Henry be able to rally
another army in the Midlands. He cannot hope to do so before we reach
London."

"That sounds fairly, Oswald, but 'tis always better to carry out the
plans you have made; and this absence of Glendower, at the point
arranged, to my mind augurs ill."

Henry was an able general. Believing that the Percys would make for the
Welsh border, he had posted himself at Burton-on-Trent; but as soon as
he heard that they had changed their course he started for Shrewsbury,
and marched so quickly that he arrived there before Hotspur, thus
throwing himself between the Percys and the Welsh.

Hotspur, on arriving near the town, was enraged at hearing that
Glendower had not arrived, according to his promise. The king's army
was encamped on the eastern side of the town, and the northern forces
took post a short distance away. That night Hotspur sent a document
into the royal camp, declaring Henry to be forsworn and perjured: in
the first place because he had sworn, under Holy Gospel, that he would
claim nothing but his own proper inheritance, and that Richard should
reign to the end of his life; secondly, because he had raised taxes and
other impositions, contrary to his oath, and by his own arbitrary
power; thirdly, because he had caused King Richard to be kept in the
castle of Pontefract, without meat, drink, or fire, whereof he perished
of hunger, thirst, and cold. There were other clauses, some of them
regarding his conduct to Sir Edmund Mortimer. The claims of the young
Earl of March to the throne were also set forward, and the document
ended with a defiance.

Henry simply sent, as reply, that he had no time to lose in writing;
but that he would, in the morning, prove in battle whose claims were
false and feigned.

Nevertheless, in the morning, when the two armies were arrayed in the
order of battle, the king sent the Abbot of Shrewsbury to propose an
amicable arrangement. Hotspur and Douglas, however, rejected the offer.
The trumpets then blew on either side, and the armies joined battle.

Their numbers were about equal. Each consisted of some fourteen
thousand men. Douglas and Hotspur had taken their place in the centre
of their line, having behind them a party of their best knights. These
charged with fury down upon the king's standard, which stood in the
centre of his array. Hotspur and Douglas, his former rival, were
accounted two o