For another half
hour the main battle raged; then came the news that Hotspur was killed,
and Douglas and Westmoreland prisoners; the English horsemen dashed
down on the flanks of the northern line, the spearmen pressed forward,
and the Scotch and Northumbrians broke and fled.
When the knights first charged, Oswald had been with his own following,
and a hundred other horsemen, on the left flank. As soon as he saw what
had happened, he endeavoured to ride round the right flank of the royal
army; but was met by a much larger force of men-at-arms and, after hard
fighting, driven back. Oswald himself, with Roger on one hand and his
father on the other, had several times hewed his way deep into the
enemy's squadron; and would have been cut off, had not the Yardhope
moss troopers spurred furiously in to the rescue, and brought them all
off again.
Several times the charge was renewed, but ineffectually. Half the rebel
army had been killed; and when, at last, the infantry broke, and it was
clear that there was no more to be done, Oswald, who was wounded in
half a dozen places, called the survivors of his troop to follow him;
and, with his party, rode off in good order.
A mile from the field they halted for a few minutes.
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