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You can read this book here in pdf - Electric Scotland

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FROM ENGLISH CHRONICLERS 205<br />

Immediately the steadfastness of the rest of the army was<br />

shaken and weakened. T<strong>here</strong>fore the aldermen made haste<br />

and compelled the k<strong>in</strong>g to call back the horses, and to depart<br />

with his column <strong>in</strong> close formation, lest he too should go to<br />

destruction with his followers. x<br />

RICHARD OF HEXHAM, DE GESTIS REGIS STEPHANI, IN<br />

CHRONICLES OF STEPHEN, ETC., VOL. Ill, p. 164.<br />

The pla<strong>in</strong> was filled with corpses ; very many prisoners<br />

were taken, and the k<strong>in</strong>g and all the others took to flight. Indeed<br />

of so great an army all were sla<strong>in</strong>, or captured, or scattered<br />

and <strong>in</strong> marvellous<br />

like sheep when the shepherd is struck down ;<br />

fashion, as if bereft of sense, they fled away from their country<br />

<strong>in</strong>to the surround<strong>in</strong>g districts of their foes no less than back<br />

towards their land. And w<strong>here</strong>ver they were found they were<br />

2<br />

killed like sheep for the slaughter.<br />

And by a just judgment of God they who had pitiably sla<strong>in</strong><br />

many, and left them unburied, were themselves sla<strong>in</strong> much<br />

more pitiably, and, without benefit of ancestral or alien burial,<br />

left exposed as prey to dogs, birds and wild beasts, either<br />

were torn and picked to pieces or decayed and putrefied beneath<br />

the sky.<br />

The k<strong>in</strong>g too, who recently had seemed to touch with his<br />

head the stars of heaven, through the excessive exaltation of<br />

his m<strong>in</strong>d and magnitude of his army, and who t<strong>here</strong>fore threatened<br />

to depopulate the whole or the greater part of England,<br />

presently escaped <strong>in</strong>gloriously and accompanied by but a few,<br />

<strong>in</strong> the greatest confusion and disgrace, barely with his life. 3<br />

And thus the power of God's vengeance was most pla<strong>in</strong>ly<br />

1 "<br />

Cf. H. of H., 264 : And the royal l<strong>in</strong>e, which k<strong>in</strong>g David had drawn<br />

from several nations, so soon as they saw <strong>this</strong> [flight of the ma<strong>in</strong> body] began<br />

to flee away, first s<strong>in</strong>gly, then <strong>in</strong> groups, till the k<strong>in</strong>g held out almost alone.<br />

And when the k<strong>in</strong>g's friends saw <strong>this</strong> they seized his charger and compelled<br />

him to retire." So Hoved., i, 195. Cf. M.P., Chr. Maj., ii, 169 ; H.A., i,<br />

260. Cf. A. of R., De S., <strong>in</strong> Chr. of Ste., etc., iii, 197, and note.<br />

"<br />

A. of R., ibid. : The English army advanced aga<strong>in</strong>st them and would<br />

surely have sla<strong>in</strong> or taken the k<strong>in</strong>g himself with all his men had not his knights<br />

lifted him by force upon his horse, though he refused utterly to flee, and<br />

compelled him to retire."<br />

2 Cf. J. of H., <strong>in</strong> S. of D., ii, 294 :<br />

"<br />

But very many Scots lost their way<br />

through ignorance of the district ; and they were slaughtered w<strong>here</strong>ver they<br />

were found."<br />

"<br />

O.V., XIII, 19, <strong>in</strong> Migne, 188, 971 : The Scots, fear<strong>in</strong>g the threaten<strong>in</strong>g<br />

sword, fled to the water, and ran <strong>in</strong>to the great river called [Tees], without<br />

a ford ; and flee<strong>in</strong>g from death were straightway swallowed up <strong>in</strong> death."<br />

For Zedam (the Jed) <strong>in</strong> the text <strong>read</strong> Teisam (the Tees) ?<br />

3 "<br />

J. of W., <strong>in</strong> Fl. of W., ii, 112 : But he himself fled away, beaten, <strong>in</strong><br />

the greatest fear and disgrace." Cf. W. of N., <strong>in</strong> Chr. of Ste., etc., i, 34.

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