scene on the eminence of Hadley, Edward, surrounded by
Hastings, Gloucester, and his principal captains, took advantage of the
unexpected sunshine to scan the foe and its position, with the eye of
his intuitive genius for all that can slaughter man. "This day," he
said, "brings no victory, assures no crown, if Warwick escape alive.
To you, Lovell and Ratcliffe, I intrust two hundred knights,--your sole
care the head of the rebel earl!"

"And Montagu?" said Ratcliffe.

"Montagu? Nay, poor Montagu, I loved him as well once as my own mother's
son; and Montagu," he muttered to himself, "I never wronged, and
therefore him I can forgive. Spare the marquis.--I mislike that wood;
they must have more force within than that handful on the skirts
betrays. Come hither, D'Eyncourt."

And a few minutes afterwards, Warwick and his men saw two parties
of horse leave the main body, one for the right hand, one the left,
followed by long detachments of pikes, which they protected; and then
the central array marched slowly and steadily on towards the scanty foe.
The design was obvious,--to surround on all sides the enemy, driven to
its last desperate bay. But Montagu and his brother had not been idle in
the breathing-pause; they had planted the greater portion of the archers
skilfully among the trees. They had placed their pikemen on the verge of
the barricades made by sharp stakes and fallen timber, and where their
rampart was unguarded by the pass which had been left free for the
horsemen, Hilyard and his stoutest fellows took their post, filling the
gap with breasts of iron.

And now, as with horns and clarions, with a sea of plumes and spears and
pennons, the multitudinous deathsmen came on, Warwick, towering in the
front, not one feather on his eagle crest despoiled or shorn, stood,
dismounted, his visor still raised, by his renowned steed. Some of the
men had by Warwick's order removed the mail from the destrier's breast;
and the noble animal, relieved from the weight, seemed as unexhausted
as its rider; save where the champed foam had bespecked its glossy hide,
not a hair was turned; and the on-guard of the Yorkists heard its fiery
snort as they moved slowly on. This figure of horse and horseman
stood prominently forth amidst the little band. And Lovell, riding by
Ratcliffe's side, whispered, "Beshrew me, I would rather King Edward had
asked for mine own head than that gallant earl's!"

"Tush, youth," said the inexorable Ratcl