for a day and a night, at length gave up the enterprise, Feb. 27.and on the morning of the 27th were returning from Melrose to Jedburgh, across Ancram Muir. They were weary with a long march. The Scots, though they did not know it, were before and behind them; and at this time, whatever may have been their previous intentions, the Douglases were with the Regent. The first body of the enemy which the English saw they rushed upon with careless eagerness; but a high wind and a violent dust threw them into disorder. Angus shouted to Arran, 'Thou art suspected to be a coward, and I to be a traitor: if thou wouldst purge thyself of slander, let deeds, not painted speeches, now make your apology.' A heron rose out of the moor as they charged upon the shaken ranks of the invaders. 'I would my good goss-hawk were here,' he cried; 'we should all yoke together.' The English stood their ground for a time; but they were surprised in an ambuscade,[1] and found themselves
- ↑ They were probably trusting to the guidance of the Scots, who had drawn them into the expedition. Paget, writing from the Netherlands to the King, says, 'There was some treason among the Scots that were come in to your Majesty; that being a thing before contrived and conjurated bet ween them and the governour, and therefore a certain conclusion made among them that the thing must follow as it did, the Scots advertised the same not being yet done over hither as a thing already done. For the same day the fight was in Scotland the question was asked me here of the thing, and whether your Highness's lieutenant was slain or taken with all his army.'And again, in a letter from the privy council we find: 'If Ralph Evers had not given too much credit to those false new reconciled Scots, he was like to have had as good success and as much honour of that journey as ever he had of any since the beginning of these wars.'—State Papers, vol. x. pp. 334, 354.
