The English archers fell back a little, still shooting
as they did so; but halted a short way up the hill, and shot so hotly
and strongly that they pierced helmet and armour with their arrows.
Nothing could withstand these missiles, shot by the finest and
strongest bowmen in the world. The Scots rolled over in heaps. Douglas,
although clad in the most perfect steel armour, was wounded in five
places, one arrow destroying the sight of one of his eyes. He fell from
his horse, and utter confusion reigned in the Scottish ranks.
Swinging their bows behind them, the archers drew their axes and rushed
into the crowd, effecting a terrible slaughter. Douglas was made
prisoner, as was the Earl of Fife, a son of the Regent Albany, the
Earls of Moray and Angus and Orkney. Two barons, eighty knights, among
whom were several Frenchmen, and several other persons of rank were
also captured; while Swinton, Gordon, and many other knights and
gentlemen were slain, together with seven hundred of the commonalty.
With the exception only of Flodden, no battle on the Border was so
fatal to the Scottish nobility, whose defeat was effected by the
archers only.
The confusion was so terrible that the Earl of Northumberland refused
to allow his knights and men-at-arms to charge, seeing that they must
trample down both friend and foe; therefore they stood as passive
spectators of the desperate fight, not a lance being couched nor a blow
struck by any of them.
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