pure, tender-hearted peasant girl of the Vosges. Her first visit as she entered Orleans was to the great church, and there, as she knelt at mass, she wept in such a passion of devotion that "all the people wept with her." Her tears burst forth afresh at her first sight of bloodshed and of the corpses strewn over the battle-field. She grew frightened at her first wound, and only threw off the touch of womanly fear when she heard the signal for retreat. Yet more womanly was the purity with which she passed through the brutal warriors of a medieval camp. It was her care for her honour that led her to clothe herself in a soldier's dress. She wept hot tears when told of the foul taunts of the English, and called passionately on God to witness her chastity. "Yield thee, yield thee, Glasdale," she cried to the English warrior whose insults had been foulest as he fell wounded at her feet, "you called me harlot! I have great pity on your soul." But all thought of herself was lost in the thought of her mission. It was in vain that the French generals strove to remain on the Loire. Jeanne was resolute to complete her task, and while the English remained panic-stricken around Paris she brought Charles to march upon Rheims, the old crowning-place of the Kings of France. Troyes and Chalons submitted as she reached them, Rheims drove out the English garrison and threw open her gates to the King.

IV.

BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY.

KIRK.

[Joan fell at last into the hands of her enemies and was burned as a witch. But the impulse she had given roused France; and the English were driven at last not only from

their recent conquests but from their own possession of Aquitaine. Of all they had held in France Calais only remained to them. The shame of these defeats heightened the disorder in England itself, which sprang from the imbecility of Henry the Sixth, and the strife of factions about his throne. At last the Duke of York, who descended from an elder brother of John of Gaunt, disputed Henry's right to the crown, and claimed to be king. With this claim began the Wars of the Roses, as they were called, the Red Rose being the badge of Lancaster, the White Rose of York. The. Duke, after some successes, was defeated and slain; but his son, aided by the Earl of Warwick, the mightiest of the English nobles, drove Henry from the throne and himself mounted it as Edward the Fourth. Quarrels however sprang up between Edward and Warwick; and at last Warwick was driven into exile. He returned to England, and Edward had himself to fly over sea, while Henry the Sixth was once more set on the throne; but a fresh landing of Edward in Yorkshire was followed by the defeat and death of Warwick, and by a new deposition of Henry. At the moment of Warwick's overthrow, Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, landed on the southern coast with her son and a body of French troops; and Edward at once marched against her. Margaret's aim was to gather an army, and to do this she pushed through the western counties up the Severn, while Edward hurried in pursuit.]

ON the morning of Thursday, the second of May,1 the Yorkists 2 were at Malmesbury, the Lancastrians 3 at Bristol. A line drawn between these two places would represent the southern base of a triangle of which the northern apex might be found either at Gloucester, at Tewkesbury, or at Worcester, according as the lines of march represented by the sides were more or less convergent. But since the more westerly line was somewhat longer than the others, it was necessary for the Lancastrians to gain at least a day's 2 The army of Edward the Fourth.

1 1471. army of Margaret.

PART II.

3 The

start in advance. To effect this object they again made a feint of offering battle, sending a small party to Sodbury, midway between Bristol and Malmesbury, to fix upon convenient ground for receiving the attack. Again Edward allowed himself to be momentarily deceived. He marched to Sodbury on the evening of the same day, and having selected his position, remained there during the night. Early in the morning, thanks to the vigilance of his spies, he discovered his error. The Lancastrians having travelled all night up the bank of the Severn, were now at Berkeley, far on the road to Gloucester. To intercept them with his army before they should reach this latter point was no longer possible; and if they gained possession of the town,* which was strongly fortified, they would be sheltered from an immediate attack, and would hold an excellent position for awaiting the expected succours from Wales and other quarters. There was still time however for a well-mounted party to carry notice of the enemy's approach to Richard Beauchamp, the newly appointed governor of Gloucester castle ; and having despatched this warning the King set out with his whole army, by the nearest route to Tewkesbury, whither the Lancastrians, if they failed to enter Gloucester, would necessarily proceed, and where he trusted to come up with them.

Thus the two hostile armies were now marching in the same direction, on concentric lines, and the trial was one of endurance and of speed. The day was "right an hot" one for the season; on neither route were there any villages; and the soldiers of Edward travelled more than thirty miles without any other refreshment for themselves or their horses than was afforded by the waters of a single brook, "where was full little relief, it was so soon troubled with the carriages that had passed it." They had, however, two 4 Of Gloucester.

advantages over the enemy. A much larger proportion of their force consisted of cavalry, and their course lay across the Cotswold, an open and level, though elevated tract of country, while that of the Lancastrians led through lanes. and woods, which offered many obstructions to their progress. They lost some time moreover in a vain attempt to enter Gloucester, where, though the inhabitants were friendly to them, the governor was successful in preventing their admission.

During the latter part of the day the distance between. them and their pursuers was rapidly diminished, and the enemy's scouts began to swarm along their flank. Nevertheless, they reached Tewkesbury somewhat earlier in the evening than Edward arrived at Cheltenham, then a mere village five miles to the south-east. But all hope of making They had been on the

good their escape was now past. road the whole of the preceding night, had marched since the morning a distance of thirty-six miles, and were incapable of any further advance till thoroughly refreshed by food and sleep. Here, therefore, they must stand at bay; and their leaders made choice of a position well adapted to their purpose on the hills sloping southward from the town. The ancient Saxon abbey, with its magnificent Norman church, was "at their backs; afore them, and upon every hand of them, foul lanes and deep dikes, and many hedges, with hills and valleys, a right evil place to approach as could well have been devised."

Being apprised of the enemy's intention to receive battle, Edward, after a short delay at Cheltenham, led his army two miles further towards Tewkesbury, and halted for the night. At break of day his troops were again under arms. He gave the command of the vanguard to his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, then only nineteen years of

5 Afterwards Richard the Third.

age; the rear-guard was intrusted to Lord Hastings; while the rest of the forces were led by the king in person, with the exception of a small detachment sent forward to the edge of a wood, in case an ambush had been set for an assault upon his flank. Trumpets were blown, banners unfurled, and the aid and protection of the Almighty, the Virgin Mother, the blessed martyr Saint George, and all the Saints, solemnly invoked. The cannon then opened their fire; and the whole army advanced to the attack, the lines of bowmen in front sending forth a continual flight of arrows. The Lancastrians, had they been content to avail themselves of the advantages of their position, waiting till their assailants had crossed the fences and ditches and begun to gather on the rising ground, might then by a vigorous repulse have thrown them into confusion, where confusion. must have ended in rout. But they were now to experience the usual ill-effects of a divided command. It was easy for the different chiefs to stimulate by their exhortations and example the courage of their men; but there was no one to direct or restrain the ardour of the chiefs. The Prince of Wales was too young to exercise any real authority. Yet his presence, and that of his mother, who had ridden through the ranks to animate the spirits of the troops, and who did not retire from the field till the battle had begun, was perhaps the reason for not investing any subject leader with the sole command.

However this may have been, the Duke of Somerset, whose force was posted in the front, led away either by his own impatient valour or by the restlessness of his men under the fire of the artillery and the archers, determined to leave his vantage-ground and come at once to an encounter with the enemy. He is even said to have cloven with his battle-axe the skull of one of his associates, Lord 7 Margaret of Anjou.

The son of Henry the Sixth.