This time he was not long kept waiting. In a
moment the open space about the cross was filled with
horse and foot. Richard of Gloucester took his
place upon the steps, and despatched messenger after
messenger to hasten the concentration of the seven
hundred men that lay hidden in the immediate neighbourhood
among the woods; and before a quarter of an hour had
passed, all his dispositions being taken, he put himself
at their head, and began to move down the hill towards
Shoreby.
His plan was simple. He was to seize a quarter
of the town of Shoreby lying on the right hand of
the high road, and make his position good there in
the narrow lanes until his reinforcements followed.
If Lord Risingham chose to retreat, Richard would
follow upon his rear, and take him between two fires;
or, if he preferred to hold the town, he would be
shut in a trap, there to be gradually overwhelmed
by force of numbers.
There was but one danger, but that was imminent and
great— Gloucester’s seven hundred
might be rolled up and cut to pieces in the first
encounter, and, to avoid this, it was needful to make
the surprise of their arrival as complete as possible.
The footmen, therefore, were all once more taken up
behind the riders, and Dick had the signal honour
meted out to him of mounting behind Gloucester himself.
For as far as there was any cover the troops moved
slowly, and when they came near the end of the trees
that lined the highway, stopped to breathe and reconnoitre.
The sun was now well up, shining with a frosty brightness
out of a yellow halo, and right over against the luminary,
Shoreby, a field of snowy roofs and ruddy gables,
was rolling up its columns of morning smoke.
Gloucester turned round to Dick.
“In that poor place,” he said, “where
people are cooking breakfast, either you shall gain
your spurs and I begin a life of mighty honour and
glory in the world’s eye, or both of us, as I
conceive it, shall fall dead and be unheard of.
Two Richards are we. Well, then, Richard Shelton,
they shall be heard about, these two! Their
swords shall not ring more loudly on men’s helmets
than their names shall ring in people’s ears.”
Dick was astonished at so great a hunger after fame,
expressed with so great vehemence of voice and language,
and he answered very sensibly and quietly, that, for
his part, he promised he would do his duty, and doubted
not of victory if everyone did the like.
By this time the horses were well breathed, and the
leader holding up his sword and giving rein, the whole
troop of chargers broke into the gallop and thundered,
with their double load of fighting men, down the remainder
of the hill and across the snow-covered plain that
still divided them from Shoreby.
The whole distance to be crossed was not above a quarter
of a mile. But they had no sooner debauched beyond
the cover of the trees than they were aware of people
fleeing and screaming in the snowy meadows upon either
hand. Almost at the same moment a great rumour
began to arise, and spread and grow continually louder
in the town; and they were not yet halfway to the
nearest house before the bells began to ring backward
from the steeple.
