of honour in leading the rebel army, but who, from
their ignorance of discipline and want of experience, were ill fitted
to resist the gentry and military men, of whom the prince's body was
composed. They were broken in an instant; were chased off the field;
and Edward, transported by his martial ardour, and eager to revenge
the insolence of the Londoners against his mother [i], put them to the
sword for the length of four miles, without giving them any quarter,
and without reflecting on the fate which in the mean time attended the
rest of the army. The Earl of Leicester, seeing the royalists thrown
into confusion by their eagerness in the pursuit, led on his remaining
troops against the bodies commanded by the two royal brothers: he
defeated, with great slaughter, the forces headed by the King of the
Romans; and that prince was obliged to yield himself prisoner to the
Earl of Gloucester; he penetrated to the body where the king himself
was placed, threw it into disorder, pursued his advantage, chased it
into the town of Lewes, and obliged Henry to surrender himself
prisoner [k].
[FN [i] M. Paris, p. 670. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 62. W. Heming. p. 583.
M. West. p. 387. Ypod. Neust. p. 469. H. Knyghton, p. 2450. [k] M.
Paris, p. 670. M. West. p. 387.]

Prince Edward, returning to the field of battle from his precipitate
pursuit of the Londoners, was astonished to find it covered with the
dead bodies of his friends and still more to hear, that his father and
uncle were defeated and taken prisoners, and that Arundel, Comyn Brus,
Hamond L'Estrange, Roger Leybourne, and many considerable barons of
his party, were in the hands of the victorious enemy. Earl Warrenne,
Hugh Bigod, and William de Valence, struck with despair at this event,
immediately took to flight, hurried to Pevensey, and made their escape
beyond sea [l]: but the prince, intrepid amidst the greatest
disasters, exhorted his troops to revenge the death of their friends,
to relieve the royal captives, and to snatch an easy conquest from an
enemy disordered by their own victory [m]. He found his followers
intimidated by their situation; while Leicester, afraid of a sudden
and violent blow from the prince, amused him by a feigned negotiation,
till he was able to recall his troops from the pursuit, and to bring
them into order [n]. There now appeared no farther resource to the
royal party, surrounded by the armies and garrisons of the enemy,
destitute of for