spoil on the country; as they received no accession of force on their
march or in their encampment, and as such hasty and popular tumults
might be expected to diminish every moment by delay; he took post in
London, and assiduously prepared the means of insuring victory.

After all his forces were collected, he divided them into three bodies,
and marched out to assail the enemy. The first body, commanded by the
earl of Oxford, and under him by the earls of Essex and Suffolk, were
appointed to place themselves behind the hill on which the rebels were
encamped: the second, and most considerable, Henry put under the command
of Lord Daubeney, and ordered him to attack the enemy in front, and
bring on the action. The third he kept as a body of reserve about his
own person, and took post in St. George's Fields; where he secured the
city, and could easily, as occasion served, either restore the fight or
finish the victory. To put the enemy off their guard, he had spread
a report that he was not to attack them till some days after; and the
better to confirm them in this opinion, he began not the action till
near the evening. Daubeney beat a detachment of the rebels from Deptford
bridge; and before their main body could be in order to receive him, he
had gained the ascent of the hill, and placed himself in array before
them. They were formidable from their numbers, being sixteen thousand
strong, and were not defective in valor; but being tumultuary troops,
ill armed, and not provided with cavalry or artillery, they were but
an unequal match for the king's forces. Daubeney began the attack with
courage, and even with a contempt of the enemy which had almost proved
fatal to him. He rushed into the midst of them, and was taken prisoner;
but soon after was released by his own troops. After some resistance,
the rebels were broken and put to flight.[*]

* Polyd. Virg. p. 601.

Lord Audley, Flammoc, and Joseph, their leaders, were taken, and all
three executed. The latter seemed even to exult in his end, and boasted,
with a preposterous ambition, that he should make a figure in his tory.
The rebels, being surrounded on every side by the king's troops, were
almost all made prisoners; and immediately dismissed without further
punishment: whether, that Henry was satisfied with the victims who had
fallen in the field, and who amounted to near two thousand, or that he
pitied the ignorance and simplicity of the multitude, or favored th