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THE EURES.
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By
the advice of this experienced
warrior, Angus withdrew from the
height which he had occupied, and marshalled his forces behind it, upon a
piece of low flat ground called Panier-heugh. The spare horses, which had
been sent to an eminence in their rear, appeared to the English to be the
main body of the Scotch in the act of flight. Under this persuasion Eure
and Layton hurried precipitately up the hill, and found, to their surprise,
the phalanx of Scottish spearmen drawn up in firm array upon the flat
ground below. The Scotch in their turn became the assailants. The
English were taken by surprise, and found themselves attacked on all sides
by enemies who appeared to have risen out of the morass. At the same
time the 2,000 Scottish borderers who had submitted to Eure, and formed
part of his force, perceiving that their countrymen would be victorious,
threw away their red cross badges, and fell upon the English, to make
amends for their late desertion of the Scottish cause. The English broke
and fled in utter disorder, leaving their commanders to their fate. Eure,
Layton, Lord Ogle, and 200 more were killed, and a thousand prisoners paid
for their cowardice by the ransom which was wrung from them.* So perished
the gallant Sir Ralph, and his body was buried in the Abbey of Melrose,
which he had so ruthlessly desecrated and finally burned.
As an illustration of the grim justice of Henry VIII., amongst the
prisoners was Thomas Read, a London alderman. He had declined to
contribute his share to the " benevolence," as it was called, which the
King had demanded of the citizens of London. For this act of insubordination
the King ordered him to be seized, and sent him to Eure, with
directions that he should be compelled to serve as a soldier, and subjected
to all the rigour and hardships of the service, that he might know what
soldiers suffered whilst in the field, and be more ready another time to assist
the King with money to pay them. The luckless alderman escaped from
his unwelcome experience with life, but his heavy ransom, combined therewith,
taught him a lesson which he probably never forgot.
Angus professed, even after this, to remain true to the English cause,
and when threatened with the anger of Henry he exclaimed, " Is our good
" brother offended that I am a good Scotchman that I revenged on Ralph
" Eure the abusing of the tombs of my forefathers at Melrose ? They were
" more honourable men than he, and I ought to have done no less. Will
" King Henry for that have my life : Little knows he the Skirts of
" Kernetable. I will keep myself there from his whole English army."t
The spot where the battle was fought was also called Lillyard's Edge,
Scott says (Tales of a Grandfather, vol. i. p. 225), because a beautiful young
maiden called Lillyard followed her lover from the little village of Maxton,
* Border Minstrelsy. Sir Walter Scott. t Froude's History of England.