orthumbrians broke and fled.

When the knights first charged, Oswald had been with his own following,
and a hundred other horsemen, on the left flank. As soon as he saw what
had happened, he endeavoured to ride round the right flank of the royal
army; but was met by a much larger force of men-at-arms and, after hard
fighting, driven back. Oswald himself, with Roger on one hand and his
father on the other, had several times hewed his way deep into the
enemy's squadron; and would have been cut off, had not the Yardhope
moss troopers spurred furiously in to the rescue, and brought them all
off again.

Several times the charge was renewed, but ineffectually. Half the rebel
army had been killed; and when, at last, the infantry broke, and it was
clear that there was no more to be done, Oswald, who was wounded in
half a dozen places, called the survivors of his troop to follow him;
and, with his party, rode off in good order.

A mile from the field they halted for a few minutes. Not one of them
but had been more or less severely wounded in the desperate melee. They
now took off their armour, and bandaged each other's wounds; and then,
mounting again, they rode off.

"What do you say, Father," Oswald asked; "shall we circle round, and
join Glendower? We know that his army is close at hand and, were they
to attack tonight, they should win an easy victory; for the king's men
have suffered well nigh as sorely as we have."

"No, Oswald; we have done enough. We have not been fighting for the
Earl of March. We have been simply following our feudal lord, as we
were bound to do. He is dead, and we have nought to do with this
quarrel. What is it to us whether March or Henry is king?"

They were not pursued. The greater part of the English cavalry were
exhausted by their exertions against Hotspur and Douglas. Their loss
was extremely heavy, and those in a condition to pursue took up the
comparatively easy work of cutting down the flying footmen.

The battle had been a disastrous one, for both sides. Their losses were
about even, the number who fell altogether being put at ten thousand
men. With Douglas, the Earl of Westmoreland, Baron of Kinderton, Sir
Richard Vernon, and other knights were captured. Westmoreland,
Kinderton, and Vernon were at once executed on the field of battle, as
rebels; but Douglas, as a foreign knight, was simply viewed as a
prisoner of war, and was kindly treated.

Glendower took no advantage of the oppor