But in the interval, the hard-pressed troops commanded by Hastings
were scattered and dispersed; driven from the field, they fled in
numbers through the town of Barnet; many halted not till they reached
London, where they spread the news of the earl's victory and Edward's
ruin. [Sharon Turner.]

Through the mist, Friar Bungey discerned the fugitive Yorkists under
Hastings, and heard their cries of despair; through the mist, Sibyll
saw, close beneath the intrenchments which protected the space on
which they stood, an armed horseman with the well-known crest of
Hastings on his helmet, and, with lifted visor, calling his men to the
return, in the loud voice of rage and scorn. And then she herself
sprang forwards, and forgetting his past cruelty in his present
danger, cried his name,--weak cry, lost in the roar of war! But the
friar, now fearing he had taken the wrong side, began to turn from his
spells, to address the most abject apologies to Adam, to assure him
that he would have been slaughtered at the Tower but for the friar's
interruption; and that the rope round his neck was but an
insignificant ceremony due to the prejudices of the soldiers. "Alas,
Great Man," he concluded, "I see still that thou art mightier than I
am; thy charms, though silent, are more potent than mine, though my
lungs crack beneath them! Confusio Inimicis Taralorolu, I mean no
harm to the earl. Garrabora, mistes et nubes!--Lord, what will become
of me!"

Meanwhile, Hastings--with a small body of horse, who being composed of
knights and squires, specially singled out for the sword, fought with
the pride of disdainful gentlemen, and the fury of desperate soldiers
--finding it impossible to lure back the fugitives, hewed their own way
through Oxford's ranks to the centre, where they brought fresh aid to