Cressy and Poictiers: The Story of the Black Prince's Page

by John G. Edgar

At the same moment the archers in front of Lord Percy's men-at-arms took several steps forward, and a shower of arrows darkened the air. But the effect was not what was expected. Galled by the shafts, and exasperated almost to madness, the High Steward and his cavalry charged forward with shouts of wrath and scorn, drove the archers back upon the men-at-arms, and, plying axe and broadsword with ferocious vigour, succeeded in throwing the whole battalion into such confusion that Lord Percy in vain said, "My merry men, fight on!" and, ere the battle had lasted an hour, victory seemed so decidedly to incline to the Scots, that I, as a looker-on, felt a degree of alarm I should in vain attempt to express in words.

"The saints defend us!" exclaimed D'Eyncourt, who held the queen's rein.

"All will be lost," cried Lord Ogle. "O for one hour of my lord the king!"

"No," said the queen, calm in the great peril, "the field is yet ours. Boy page," turning towards me, "ride fast to the Lord Baliol; tell him to throw his cavalry on the Scottish van, break their ranks, and disperse them; but no pursuit. Away! quick! or he will have to fight, not for victory, but for life."

I bent my head low; I gave my horse the spur, and, without wasting a moment, communicated Philippa's command.

"The queen is right," said Baliol thoughtfully. "Gentlemen," said he to his followers, "let us charge the High Steward, drive back the enemy, but no pursuit. Strike for King Edward and England! On, on! A Baliol! a Baliol!"

And the tall horsemen of the North spurred against the Scots.

The effect was instantaneous. The rush was not to be resisted. Abandoning the advantage he had gained, the High Steward exercised all his skill to make good his retreat, and Baliol, without following, allowed him to go off unmolested. In fact, Baliol's brilliant charge had turned the fortune of the field; and as Lord Moubray and Sir Thomas Rokeby attacked Lord Douglas and the Earl of Moray, Baliol turned his eyes towards the place where the Lords Neville and Hastings were contending, with inferior numbers, against the centre of the Scottish army, led by the king, and composed of the flower of Scottish chivalry, and the French auxiliaries whom Philip of Valois had sent over the sea with malicious intent.

So far, the warriors forming the king's division had borne their part bravely in the battle. But now their plight was perilous in the extreme; for the withdrawal of the High Steward had left them fearfully exposed, and Baliol, with his hereditary and personal antipathy to the house of Bruce revived by the excitement and carnage of the day, wheeling round, charged the main body of the Scots on the flank with such force that French auxiliaries and Scottish chivalry gave way, and the battalion, shaken to its centre, reeled, divided, and broke into confused fragments; while high above the din sounded the war-cries of Neville and Hastings, and over the field rang shouts of "St. George and victory! Strike for King Edward!"

By this time the position of David Bruce was desperate; for the rear of his army, under Lord Douglas and the Earl of Moray, fiercely attacked by Moubray and Rokeby, and confined by hedges and fences, was precluded from escape, and utterly routed. At the time, therefore, that the King of Scots found himself worsted by Baliol, and looked around for aid, the High Steward had disappeared from the field; Douglas was a prisoner; and Moray a corpse.