xviii. The English army were in pursuit of the Scots, then employed in

ravaging Northumberland under the Earl of Douglas, who was strongly posted upon a hill side, with a deep and rocky river in his front. “And there were harauldis of armes sent to the Scottis gyvyng them knowledge if that they would come and passe the ryver to fight with them in the playne felde, they wolde draw backe fro the ryver, and gyve theym sufficient place to arraynge theyr batelles, eyther the same day, or els the next, as they wolde chuse them selfe, or els to lette them do lyke wyse, and they wolde come over to them. And whan the Scottis harde this they toke counsell among theymselfe: and anon they answered the harauldis, how they wolde do nother the one nor the other, and said, syrs, your kyng and his lordis se well how we be here in this realme, and have burnt and wasted the countrey as we have passed through, and if they be displeased therwith, lette them amend it whan they wyll, for here we wyll abide, as long as it shall please us.” Challenges of this sort were often given in the days of chivalry, and not unfrequently accepted.

[191] Herod. lib. iv. c. 83–142.

[192] This seems to be not a name, but a title of office, belonging to the commander–in–chief of the Parthian army, as the appellation Brennus is supposed to have denoted a similar office among the Gauls.

[193] This description will bring to the reader’s recollection the skill of our own ancestors in the use of this destructive weapon, which mainly contributed to many of their most celebrated victories. The following extract relates to the battle of Crecy. “Ther were of the genowayes(a) crosbowes about a fiftene thousand, but they were so wery of goying a fote that day, a six leages, armed with their crosbowes, that they sayde to their constables, we be nat well ordred to fyght this day, for we be nat in the case to do any grete dede of arms, we have more nede of rest:—these wordes came to the erle of Alencon, who sayd, a man is well at ease to be charged with such a sort of raskalles, to be faynt, and fayle nowe at most nede.... When the genowayes were assembled toguyder, and beganne to approche, they made a grete leape, and crye, to abasshe thenglysshemen, but they stode styll, and styredde nat for all that: than the genowayes agayne the second tyme made another leape, and a fell crye, and stepped forward a lyttell, and thenglysshemen remeued nat one fote: thirdly agayne they leapt, and cryed, and went forth tyll they came within shotte; than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes; than thenglysshe archers stept forth one pase, and lette fly their arowes so holly and so thycke, that it seemed snow: when the genowayes felte the arowes persynge through heedes, armes, and brestes, many of them cast downe their crosbowes, and dyde cut their strings, and retourned dyscomfited. When the French kynge sawe them flye away, he sayd, slee these raskalles, for they shall let and trouble us without reason: than ye shulde have seen the men at armes dasshe in amonge them, and kylled a grete nombre of them: and ever styll the englysshemen shot whereas they saw thickest preace; the sharp arowes ranne into the men of armes, and into their horses, and many fell, horse and men, amonge the genowayes: and whan they were downe, they coulde nat relyve again, the preace was so thicke that one overthrewe another.”—_Froissart_, chap. 130. So at the battle of Homildoun, Percy wished to charge the Scots, who were drawn up upon a hill, but the Earl of March retained him, and bid him open their ranks by archery. “Then the English archers marching against the Scots, _stitched them together_ with arrows, and made them bristle like a hedgehog, as it were with thorns and prickles; the hands and arms of the Scots they nailed to their own lances, so that with that sharp shower of arrows some they overthrew, others they wounded, and very many they slew. Upon which the valiant Sir John Swinton exclaimed, as with the voice of a herald, ‘My noble fellow–soldiers, what has bewitched you, that you give not way to your wonted gallantry: that you rush not to the mellay, hand to hand, nor pluck up heart like men, to attack those who would slaughter you with arrows, like hinds in a park. Let such as will go down with me, and in God’s name we will break into the enemy and so either come off with life, or else fall knightly with honour.’”—(_Fordun, Scotichr._ lib. xv. cap. 14.) One manuscript adds, “I have never heard nor read that the English in fair field beat an equal number of Scots by charge of lance, but very often by the thunder–shower (_fulminatione_) of their arrows. Let the latter therefore beware of waiting the flight of archery, but hasten to close combat, even as Sir John Swinton then did.” This is the story which Sir Walter Scott has worked up into his poem of Halidon Hill.

(a) Genoese.

[194] In European warfare, overthrown knights were often unable to rise from the incumbrance of their ponderous defences, and not very unfrequently suffocated by dust, heat, and want of air.

[195] Examples of a similar high sense of honour might be multiplied from the history of chivalry. Once during his crusade Richard Cœur–de–Lion saw a party of Templars surrounded and overmatched by Saracens, and being unarmed, sent some of his barons to support the Christians until he himself should be ready for combat. “Meanwhile an overpowering force of the enemy came up, and when he arrived at the field, the danger appeared so imminent, that he was entreated not to hazard his own person in the unequal contest. The king replied, his colour changing with his boiling blood, ‘Sith I have sent dear comrades to battle with a promise of following to assist them, if, as I have engaged, I do not defend them with all my strength, but being absent, and wanting, which Heaven forbid, they should meet death, I will never again usurp the name of king.’ So with no more words, rushing into the midst of the Turks like a thunderbolt, he pierced through, and cut them down and dispersed them, and then with many prisoners and his friends delivered, he returned to the camp.”—(_Broad Stone of Honour_, book iv. p. 174.)—So also the Marquis de Villena, a distinguished warrior of the court of Ferdinand of Arragon, being asked by Queen Isabella why he had exposed his own life to save a trusty servant nearly overpowered by odds, replied, “Should I not peril one life to serve him, who would have adventured three, had he possessed them, for me?”

[196] So Xenophon says, in the Anabasis, that the Persians never encamped less than 60 stadia (6 or 7 miles) from the Greeks. “The Persian army is a bad thing by night. For their horses are tethered, and shackled also for the most part, that they may not run away if they get loose: and if there be any disturbance, the Persian has to saddle and bridle his horse, and mount him loaded with his armour, which is all difficult by night, especially in any tumult. For these reasons they encamped away from the Grecians.”

[197] North’s Plutarch; Life of Crassus. This statement of numbers, though large, is not incredible, since the army originally consisted of seven legions, besides 4000 horse and as many light–armed infantry; and few appear to have effected their escape.

[198] Nominally about 1_l._ 13_s._; but calculations of this sort convey little instruction, unless the relative value of the precious metals, then and now, were known.

[199] North’s Plutarch; Life of Antony.

[200] A city founded by the Parthians as the capital of their empire, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, nearly opposite to Seleucia, which was built shortly after the death of Alexander by Seleucus Nicator, and intended as the capital of the East. The history of Julian’s campaign is full of interest, and will repay the perusal. It has, however, no particular connexion with the subject of this chapter, which has already reached length sufficient to preclude the introduction of extraneous matter, and we therefore are compelled to take up the narrative of Julian’s proceedings only at the point where his misfortunes commenced.

[201] At the siege of Nisibis, in the invasion of Mesopotamia above mentioned, the elephants being brought up to the attack of a breach, became unmanageable from pain and terror, and did much damage to the assaulting force.

[202] Lunari acie, siuuatisque lateribus occursuros hosti manipulos instruebat.

[203] Ctesiphon—see note, p. 214. Sogdiana, the northern province of the Parthian empire, adjoining Scythia.

[204] Arachosia, now Arakhaj, one of the eastern provinces of Persia, separated by Candahar (Candaor) from the Indus. Margiana, a province of Parthia, south of the Oxus, and rather between that river and the Caspian Sea. Iberia lies between the Caspian and Black seas, south of Caucasus. Atropatia is south of Iberia, separated from Armenia by the Araxes. Adiabene is the western part of Babylonia. The poet proceeds southward through Media to Susiana, the province of Susa, on the lowest part of the eastern bank of the Tigris, to Balsora, a celebrated city and emporium of the East; having completed the circuit of the Parthian empire, except the deserts forming its southern boundary, between the Persian Gulf and Arachosia, where he began.

[205] Paradise Regained, iii. 300–344.

[206] The night before Julian consented to accept the imperial purple at the hands of his rebellious army, he saw in a vision (so at least he told his friends) one with the attributes of the tutelary genius of the empire. The phantom complained that hitherto his desire to serve the sleeper had been, frustrated, and warned him to accept the proffered dignity as he valued the continuance of his care and protection.

[207] Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxv. 2.

[208] Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was remarkable for the favourable issue of all his undertakings. Amasis, king of Egypt, wrote thus to him: “It is pleasant to hear of the good fortune of a friend and connexion; but your extraordinary prosperity pleases not me, knowing, as I do, that the Deity is envious: and I would have those for whom I am interested meet both with success and failure, and think a chequered life better than unclouded fortune. For I have never heard of any man who, being prosperous in all things, has not at last perished miserably, root and branch. Be persuaded, then, and take this precaution against your good fortune; select whatever you have most valuable, and would most regret to lose, and so bestow this that it shall never come to man again; and if, in future, good and evil fortune are not blended, remedy it in the manner which I now propose.” Polycrates took the advice and cast into the sea an engraved gem of extraordinary value; and within a few days a fish was presented to him within which the gem was found. Amasis, hearing of it, renounced all friendship and connexion with him, as a man predestined to an evil fate. The event must have strongly confirmed the notion from which the advice proceeded; for Polycrates having given offence to the satrap of Sardis, or, as is more likely, being considered too powerful and dangerous a neighbour to remain on the Ionian coast, was entrapped into that nobleman’s power, and crucified by him.—Herod. iii. 40.

[209] Scott, vol. vii. p. 215.

[210] Segur, liv. vi. chap. 6.

[211] Scott, p. 301.

[212] It is curious that Kutusoff and Napoleon were actually retreating from Malo–Yarowslavitch, the scene of the battle, at the same moment; the one fearing another attack, the other despairing of success in forcing the position.

[213] Segur, ix. 11

[214] During the whole retreat only one corps grounded arms to the enemy, and that not until it was surrounded and cut off from the main army, and reduced to extremity. This occurred just before the passage of the Beresina.

[215] Segur, xi. 3

[216] Segur, xi. 5.

[217] To get at the exact truth is no easy matter, even where the means of ascertaining it seem most ample. General Gourgaud, who also served in 1812, has published an elaborate criticism of the Comte de Segur’s work, in which he maintains that the difficulties and losses of the passage of the Beresina have been excessively exaggerated,—that the French had 250 guns, which commanded the opposite bank, and 45,000 men under arms,—and that of women and children, whom Segur is always fond of introducing, there were next to none. Throughout the narrative we have followed Segur’s account, as generally considered most authoritative, though he seems fond of writing for effect, and his accounts, as far as disparity of numbers in this latter part of the retreat is concerned, are somewhat startling.

[218] Segur, xii. 2.