cryes and clamours eu'ry way doth heare:
But yet he knew not which the day should win:
Nor askes of any what were fit to doe,
But where the French were thick'st, he falleth to.

[Stanza 247]

The Earle of Vandom certainly that thought,
The English fury somewhat had beene stayde:
Weary with slaughter as men ouer-wrought,
Nor had beene spurr'd on by a second ayde:
For his owne safety, then more fiercely fought,
Hoping the tempest somewhat had been layde:
And he thereby (though suff'ring the defeate,)
Might keep his Reareward whole in his Retreate.

[Stanza 248]

On whom the Duke of Excester then fell,
Reare with the Reare now for their Valours vy,
Ours finde the French their lyues will dearely sell;
And th'English meane as dearely them to buy:
The English follow, should they runne through hell,
And through the same the French must, if they flye,
When too't they goe, deciding it with blowes,
With th'one side now, then with th'other't goes.

[Stanza 249]

But the sterne English with such luck and might,
(As though the Fates had sworne to take their parts)
Vpon the French preuailing in the Fight,
With doubled hands, and with re-doubled harts,
The more in perill still the more in plight,
Gainst them whom Fortune miserably thwarts:
Disabled quite before the Foe to stand,
But fall like grasse before the Mowers hand.

[Stanza 250: _The Earle of Vandome slaine._]

That this French Earle is beaten on the Field,
His fighting Souldiers round about him slaine;
And when himselfe a Prisoner he would yeeld,
And beg'd for life, it was but all in vaine;
Their Bills the English doe so easely weeld
To kill the French, as though it were no paine;
For this to them was their auspicious day,
The more the English fight, the more they may.

[Stanza 251]

When now the Marshall Boucequalt, which long
Had through the Battaile waded eu'ry way,
Oft hazarded the murther'd Troupes among,
Encouraging them to abide the day:
Finding the Army that he thought so strong,
Before the English faintly to dismay,
Brings on the wings which of the rest remain'd,
With which the Battaile stoutly he maintain'd.

[Stanza 252: _Sir Thomas Erpingham getteth in with his three hundred
Archers._]

Till olde Sir Thomas Erpingham at last,
With those three hundred Archers commeth in,
Which layd in ambush not three houres yet past;
Ha