Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII. THE BATTLE OF BLORE HEATH. ON the evening of September 22, 1459, the lonely heath of Blore near Drayton became a scene in the great and bloody drama played by the rival houses of York and Lancaster. The rays of the setting sun fell upon a gallant body of gentlemen encamped on the plain, distinguished by the ornament of a small silver swan, the badge of the prince of Wales, which queen Margaret had bestowed upon her faithful Cheshire knights. The spot on which these warriors had halted was wild and solitary. In the distance stretched the park of Blore, described by Leland, eighty years afterwards, as
five or six miles abowte and full of wonderful fair wood. Before them was a little winding glen, musical with the ripple of a small brook, from whose banks the ground rose abruptly on either side. Here James Touchet, lord Audley, and lord Dudley with a strong force of the principal men of Cheshire numbering 10,000 had resolved to interrupt the march of Richard Nevill, earl of Salisbury, who was on his way from Ludlow to London, in order to rouse the Yorkists of the capital. Audley, with so large a body of men, doubtless anticipated an easy and decisive victory over the inferior army opposed to him; but his wily adversary in the silence of the night matured a plan by which the confidence of the enemy should ensure their overthrow. At the dawn of day he commanded his archers to discharge a few arrows as a challenge. He then withdrew in apparent confusionand sounded a general retreat. The unfortunate Audley instantly fell into the snare. At the head of his men, he dashed down the heathery slope and poured his exulting troops upon the rear of the retreating foe. But he was soon convinced of his fatal mistake. Having lured his enemy into the glen, Salisbury from his vant…