Chapter 37 - Page 2

eight English leagues from Newcastle, and there encamped themselves,
This day they made no attack; but very early on the morrow their
trumpets sounded, and they made ready for the assault, advancing
towards the castle, which was tolerably strong, and situated among the
marshes. They attacked it so long and so unsuccessfully that they were
fatigued, and therefore sounded a retreat. When they had retired to
their quarters, the chiefs held a council how to act; and the
greater part were for decamping on the morrow, without attempting more
against the castle, to join their countrymen in the neighborhood of
Carlisle. But the earl of Douglas overruled this by saying, "In
despite of Sir Henry Percy, who the day before yesterday declared he
would take from me his pennon, that I conquered by fair deeds of
arms before Newcastle, I will not return home for two or three days;
and we will renew our attack on the castle, for it is to be taken:
we shall thus gain double honor, and see if within that time he will
come for his pennon; if he do it shall be well defended." Every one
agreed to what Earl Douglas had said; for it was not only honorable,
but he was the principal commander; and from affection to him they
quietly returned to their quarters. They made huts of trees and
branches, and strongly fortified themselves. They placed their baggage
and servants at the entrance of the marsh on the road to Newcastle,
and the cattle they drove into the marsh lands.
I will return to Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, who were greatly
mortified that the earl of Douglas should have conquered their
pennon in the skirmish before Newcastle. They felt the more for this
disgrace because Sir Henry had not kept his word; for he had told
the earl that he should never carry his pennon out of England, and
this he explained to the knights who were with him in Newcastle. The
English imagined the army under the earl of Douglas to be only the van
of the Scots, and that the main body was behind; for which reason
those knights who had the most experience in arms, and were best
acquainted with war-like affairs, strongly opposed the proposal of Sir
Henry Percy to pursue them. They said, "Sir, many losses happen in
war: if the earl of Douglas has won your pennon he has bought it
dear enough; for he has come to the gates to seek it, and has been
well fought with. Another time you will gain from him as much if not
more. We say so, because you know as well as we do that the whole
power of Scotland has taken the field. We are not sufficiently
strong to offer them battle; and perhaps this skirmish may have been
only a trick to draw us out of the town; and if they be, as
reported, forty thousand strong, they will surround us, and have us at
their mercy. It