Chapter 27

CHAPTER II - THE BATTLE OF SHOREBY

The whole distance to be crossed was not above a quarter of a mile.
But they had no sooner debauched beyond the cover of the trees than
they were aware of people fleeing and screaming in the snowy
meadows upon either hand. Almost at the same moment a great rumour
began to arise, and spread and grow continually louder in the town;
and they were not yet halfway to the nearest house before the bells
began to ring backward from the steeple.

The young duke ground his teeth together. By these so early
signals of alarm he feared to find his enemies prepared; and if he
failed to gain a footing in the town, he knew that his small party
would soon be broken and exterminated in the open.

In the town, however, the Lancastrians were far from being in so
good a posture. It was as Dick had said. The night-guard had
already doffed their harness; the rest were still hanging -
unlatched, unbraced, all unprepared for battle - about their
quarters; and in the whole of Shoreby there were not, perhaps,
fifty men full armed, or fifty chargers ready to be mounted.

The beating of the bells, the terrifying summons of men who ran
about the streets crying and beating upon the doors, aroused in an
incredibly short space at least two score out of that half hundred.
These got speedily to horse, and, the alarm still flying wild and
contrary, galloped in different directions.

Thus it befell that, when Richard of Gloucester reached the first
house of Shoreby, he was met in the mouth of the street by a mere
handful of lances, whom he swept before his onset as the storm
chases the bark.

A hundred paces into the town, Dick Shelton touched the duke's arm;
the duke, in answer, gathered his reins, put the shrill trumpet to
his mouth, and blowing a concerted point, turned to the right hand
out of the direct advance. Swerving like a single rider, his whole
command turned after him, and, still at the full gallop of the
chargers, swept up the narrow bye-street. Only the last score of
riders drew rein and faced about in the entrance; the footmen, whom
they carried behind them, leapt at the same instant to the earth,
and began, some to bend their bows, and others to break into and
secure the houses upon either hand.

Surprised at this sudden change of direction, and daunted by the
firm front of the rear-guard, the few Lancastrians, after a
momentary consultation, turned and rode farther into town to seek
for reinforcements.

The quarter of the town upon which, by the advice of Dick, Richard
of Gloucester had now seized, consisted of five small streets of
poor and ill-inhabited houses, occupying a very gentle eminence,
and lying open towards the back.