Part 36 (1/2)
”You!” he cried ”And froht so,” returned the archer; ”and because I like not the affair I tell it you Ye ood, Sir Richard, at your peril
O, our Crookback is a bold blade and a good warrior; but, whether in cold blood or in hot, he will have all things done exact to his commandment
If any fail or hinder, they shall die the death”
”Now, by the saints!” cried Richard, ”is this so? And will leefully,” replied the other; ”for if he be exact to punish, he is most open-handed to reward And if he spare not the blood and sweat of others, he is ever liberal of his own, still in the first front of battle, still the last to sleep He will go far, will Crookback dick o' Gloucester!”
The young knight, if he had before been brave and vigilant, was now all the e His sudden favour, he began to perceive, had brought perils in its train And he turned from the archer, and once more scanned anxiously the market-place It lay empty as before
”I like not this quietude,” he said ”Doubtless they prepare us some surprise”
And, as if in answer to his reainst the barricade, and the arrows to fall thick But there was so in the attack They canal
dick looked uneasily about hih, about half way up the little street, a door was suddenly opened from within, and the house continued, for soe a torrent of Lancastrian archers These, as they leaped down, hurriedly stood to their ranks, bent their bows, and proceeded to pour upon dick's rear a flight of arrows
At the same time, the assailants in the an to close in stoutly upon the barricade
dick called down his whole co theesture, returned as best he could the double shower of shafts that fell about his post
Meanwhile house after house was opened in the street, and the Lancastrians continued to pour out of the doors and leap down fro victory, until the number of enemies upon dick's rear was almost equal to the number in his face It was plain that he could hold the post no longer; orse, even if he could have held it, it had now become useless; and the whole Yorkist army lay in a posture of helplessness upon the brink of a complete disaster
The eneral defence; and it was upon these that dick turned, charging at the head of his orous was the attack, that the Lancastrian archers gave ground and staggered, and, at last, breaking their ranks, began to crowd back into the houses froloriously sallied
Meanwhile the men from the market-place had swarmed across the undefended barricade, and fell on hotly upon the other side; and dick ain face about, and proceed to drive theain the spirit of his men prevailed; they cleared the street in a triuain out of the houses, and took thean to be scattered; several ti his bright sword for life; several tiht swayed to and fro in the street without deterreat tru about the outskirts of the town The war-cry of York began to be rolled up to heaven, as by many and triumphant voices And at the saround rapidly, strea out of the street and back upon the ave the word to fly True It was plain that a great blow had been struck, and the Lancastrians were thrown, at least for the ree of panic
And then, like a theatre trick, there followed the last act of Shoreby Battle Thethat has been whistled home, and fled like the wind At the sah the , the Lancastrians turning back to strike with the sword, the Yorkists riding them down at the point of the lance
Conspicuous in thea foretaste of that furious valour and skill to cut his way across the ranks of hich, years afterwards upon the field of Bosworth, and when he was stained with crie the fortunes of the day and the destiny of the English throne Evading, striking, riding down, he so forced and sohorse, so aptly defended himself, and so liberally scattered death to his opponents, that he was now far ahead of the fore his ith the truncheon of a bloody sword, to where Lord Risingha the bravest A moment more and they had ainst the deformed and sickly boy
Yet Shelton had never a doubt of the result; and when the fight next opened for a ure of the earl had disappeared; but still, in the first of the danger, Crookback dick was launching his big horse and plying the truncheon of his sword
Thus, by Shelton's courage in holding the ainst the first attack, and by the opportune arrival of his seven hundred reinforcements, the lad, as afterwards to be handed down to the execration of posterity under the naht
CHAPTER IV--THE SACK OF ShoreBY
There was not a foe left within striking distance; and dick, as he looked ruefully about hian to count the cost of victory He was hier was ended, so stiff and sore, so bruised and cut and broken, and, above all, so utterly exhausted by his desperate and unreht, that he seemed incapable of any fresh exertion
But this was not yet the hour for repose Shoreby had been taken by assault; and though an open town, and not in any ed with the resistance, it was plain that these rough fighters would be not less rough now that the fight was over, and that the more horrid part of ould fall to be enacted Richard of Gloucester was not the captain to protect the citizens froht be questioned if he had the power
It was, therefore, dick's business to find and to protect Joanna; and with that end he looked about him at the faces of his men The three or four who seemed likeliest to be obedient and to keep sober he drew aside; and pro them a rich reward and a special recommendation to the duke, led them across the market-place, now empty of horsemen, and into the streets upon the further side