r, and, not far from the very spot where Hastings was marshalling
the wing intrusted to his command, made a deep chasm in the serried
ranks. Death had begun his feast!

At that moment, however, from the centre of the Yorkist army, arose,
scarcely drowned by the explosion, that deep-toned shout of enthusiasm,
which he who has once heard it, coming, as it were, from the one
heart of an armed multitude, will ever recall as the most kindling
and glorious sound which ever quickened the pulse and thrilled the
blood,--for along that part of the army now rode King Edward. His mail
was polished as a mirror, but otherwise unadorned, resembling that which
now invests his effigies at the Tower, [The suit of armour, however,
which the visitor to the Royal Armoury is expected to believe King
Edward could have worn, is infinitely too small for such credulity.
Edward's height was six feet two inches.] and the housings of his steed
were spangled with silver suns, for the silver sun was the cognizance on
all his banners. His head was bare, and through the hazy atmosphere the
gold of his rich locks seemed literally to shine. Followed by his body
squire, with his helm and lance, and the lords in his immediate staff,
his truncheon in his hand, he passed slowly along the steady line, till,
halting where he deemed his voice could be farthest heard, he reined
in, and lifting his hand, the shout of the soldiery was hushed; though
still, while he spoke, from Warwick's archers came the arrowy shower,
and still the gloom was pierced and the hush interrupted by the flash
and the roar of the bombards.

"Englishmen and friends," said the martial chief, "to bold deeds go
but few words. Before you is the foe! From Ravenspur to London I have
marched, treason flying from my sword, loyalty gathering to my standard.
With but two thousand men, on the fourteenth of March, I entered
England; on the fourteenth of April, fifty thousand is my muster roll.
Who shall say, then, that I am not king, when one month mans a monarch's
army from his subjects' love? And well know ye, now, that my cause is
yours and England's! Those against us are men who would rule in despite
of law,--barons whom I gorged with favours, and who would reduce this
fair realm of King, Lords, and Commons to be the appanage and property
of one man's measureless ambition,--the park, forsooth, the homestead to
Lord Warwick's private house! Ye gentlemen and knights of England, let
them and their