the terrible arm of Edward.




CHAPTER V.

THE BATTLE.

The mist still continued so thick that Montagu was unable to discern
the general prospects of the field; but, calm and resolute in his
post, amidst the arrows which whirled round him, and often struck,
blunted, against his Milan mail, the marquis received the reports of
his aides-de-camp (may that modern word be pardoned?) as one after one
they emerged through the fog to his side.

"Well," he said, as one of these messengers now spurred to the spot,
"we have beaten off Hastings and his hirelings; but I see not 'the
Silver Star' of Lord Oxford's banner." [The Silver Star of the De
Veres had its origin in a tradition that one of their ancestors, when
fighting in the Holy Land, saw a falling star descend upon his shield.
Fatal to men nobler even than the De Veres was that silver falling
star.]

"Lord Oxford, my lord, has followed the enemy he routed to the
farthest verge of the heath."

"Saints help us! Is Oxford thus headstrong? He will ruin all if he
be decoyed from the field! Ride back, sir! Yet hold!"--as another of
the aides-de-camp appeared. "What news from Lord Warwick's wing?"