had, ere parting to take opposite sides, agreed that whichever was on the winning party should protect the family and estates of the other. As Clifton fell, Byron ran to support him on his shield; but Clifton could only murmur, "All is over-remember your pledge ;" and Byron did faithfully remember it. Sir Robert Brackenbury met a knight named Hungerford, who had gone over to the Tudor on the march, and defied him as a deserting traitor. "I will not answer in words," said Hungerford, aiming a blow at his head, which he caught on his shield, and shivered it to atoms. "No advantage will I take," cried Hungerford, throwing away his shield; but even then he sorely wounded Brackenbury, who fell; and another knight cried, "Spare his life, brave Hungerford, he has been our friend, and so may be again; " but it was too late, for Brackenbury was already expiring.

Richard, after fighting like a lion, and hewing down whatever came within the sweep of his sword, was falling under the weight of numbers, and loud shouts proclaimed his fall. His party turned and fled, and were pursued closely for about fifty minutes, during which towards a thousand men were slain, and tradition declares that the mounds along the track are their graves. Drayton sings

"O Redmore Heath! then it seemed thy name was not in vain, When with a thousand's blocd the earth was coloured red."

This was just as the old English name of Senlac became in Norman mouths Sangue lac after Hastings. At last a steep rising ground, after about two miles, slackened the pursuit, for Henry had no desire to fulfil Richard's bloody prophecy. His uncle, Jasper Earl of Pembroke, and Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, victorious at last after their many piteous defeats, and Lord Stanley, halted with him; and Sir Reginald Bray came up with the crown that Richard had

stability, for a high wind levelled François's blue dome with the dust, and forced him to take shelter in the old castle of Ardres.

On the first day, Wolsey had a conference with François, Duprat with Henry, the upshot of which was that their children should be married. One hundred thousand crowns a year were to be paid to Henry, nominally with a view to this hypothetical marriage, but really to secure his neutrality;4 and the affairs of Scotland were to be settled by the arbitration of Louise of Savoy 5 and Cardinal Wolsey.

This settled, each king got on horseback, himself and steed both wearing as much cloth of gold and silver as could possibly be put on them, and met in the valley of Ardres. They saluted and embraced on horseback, and then dismounting at the same moment, walked arm-in-arm into the tent prepared for them, where a splendid feast was spread, with two trees in the midst, the English hawthorn and French raspberry lovingly entwined. Lists had been prepared, and invitations to a tournament issued long before; and on the 11th of June, Queen Katharine and Queen Claude sat side by side, with their feet on a foot-cloth broidered with seed-pearls, to admire the jousting, in which both their husbands took a part. Armour had come to such a state of cumbrous perfection by this time, that it was not very easy to be killed in a real battle (barring fire-arms), and tilting matches were very safe amusements. Six days were given to tilting with the lance, two to fights with the broadsword on horseback, two to fighting on foot at the barriers. On the last day there was some wrestling at the barriers, and Henry, who was fond of the sport, and never had tried it with an equal, put his hand on his good brother's collar

4 In the struggle of Francis with Charles of Austria. 5 The French King's mother.

and France.

The Queens of England

and challenged him to try a fall. Both were in the prime of life, stately, well-made men; but François was the younger, lighter, and more agile, and Henry, to his amazement, found himself on his back. He rose and demanded another turn; but the noblemen interfered, thinking it a game that might leave animosities.

François was heartily weary of the formalities of their intercourse, and early one morning called a page and two gentlemen, mounted his horse and rode up to the English canvas castle, where he found Henry still in bed, and merrily offered himself to him as captive, to which Henry responded in the same tone, by leaping up and throwing a rich collar round his neck by way of chain. François then undertook to help him to dress, warming his shirt, spreading out his hose, and trussing his points—namely, tying the innumerable little strings that connected the doublet with the hose or breeches, rendering it nearly impossible to dress without assistance. After having had his frolic François rode home again, meeting a lecture on the way from the Sieur de Fleuranges, who took him to task thus: "Sire, I am glad to see you back; but allow me to tell you, my master, that you were a fool for what you have done, and ill-luck betide those who advised you to it."

"That was no one-the thought was my own," replied the King.

And the King was altogether the more reasonable, for Englishmen had never been in the habit of murdering or imprisoning their guests, and never in his life did Henry VIII. show a taste for assassination. Yet when he beheld the arrogant manners and extraordinary display of the Constable of France, Charles de Bourbon, he could not help observing, mindful of what Warwick had been, "If I had such a subject as that, his head should not stay long on his shoulders."

The next day, which was the last of this gorgeous fortnight-Midsummer Day-King Henry apparelled himself like Hercules. That is to say, he had a shirt of silver damask with the discourteous motto, "En femes et infauntes cy petit assurance," on his head a garland of green damask cut into vine and hawthorn leaves, in his hand a club covered with " green damask full of pricks;" the Nemean lion's skull was of cloth of gold, "wrought and frizzed with flat gold of damask" for the mane, and buskins of gold. His sister Mary, in white and crimson satin, accompanied him; also the nine worthies, nineteen ladies, and a good many more, mounted on horses trapped with yellow and white velvet. Thus they set out to visit Queen Claude at Guisnes, meeting halfway a fantastic chariot, containing King François and all his masquers, on their way to make a like call upon Queen Katharine. The two parties took no notice of each other, but passed on; but when returning after supper they met again, the Kings embraced, exchanged presents, and bade farewell, when verily the scene must have been stranger than any other ever enacted under the open sky-a true midsummer night's dream.

66

'During this triumph," observed Hall, who was never more in his element, "so much people of Picardy and west Flanders drew to Guisnes to see the King of England and his honour, to whom victuals of the court were in plenty; the conduit of the gate ran wine always, there were vagabonds, ploughmen, labourers, waggoners, and beggars, that for drunkenness lay in routs and heaps. So great resort thither came, that both knights and ladies that were come to see the nobleness were fain to lie in hay and straw, and held them thereof highly pleased."

And of these same knights and ladies, the French memoir writer, Du Bellay, says, "I will not pause to relate the great Little trust can be in women and children.

superfluous expense, for it cannot be estimated. It was such that many wore their mills, their forests, and their meadows, upon their backs."

VIII.

FLODDEN FIELD.

SCOTT.

[In spite of this show of friendship Henry's alliance was really given to the French King's rival, the Emperor Charles the Fifth; and Francis avenged himself by spurring the Scots to make war on England. Their King, James the Fourth, led his army over the English border into Northumberland, and there met the English at Flodden Field.]

THE Scottish army had fixed their camp upon a hill called Flodden, which rises to close in, as it were, the extensive flat called Millfield Plain. This eminence slopes steeply towards the plain, and there is an extended piece of level ground on the top, where the Scots might have drawn up their army, and awaited at great advantage the attack of the English. Surrey1 liked the idea of venturing an assault on that position so ill, that he resolved to try whether he could not prevail on the King to abandon it. He sent a herald to invite James to come down from the height, and join battle in the open plain of Millfield below-reminded him of the readiness with which he had accepted his former challenge-and hinted, that it was the opinion of the English chivalry assembled for battle that any delay of the encounter would sound to the King's dishonour. We have seen that James was sufficiently rash and imprudent, but The Earl of Surrey, the English leader.