Part 22 (2/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of the Scottish Border.]

[Sidenote: Account of Breze.]

[Sidenote: He enters the queen's service.]

Margaret had known him intimately many years before. He was appointed one of the commissioners on the French side to negotiate, with Suffolk and the others, the terms of Margaret's marriage, and he had taken a very prominent part in the tournaments and other celebrations which took place in honor of the wedding before Margaret left her native land. When he now saw the poor queen coming back to France an exile, bereft of friends, of resources, and almost of hope, the interest which he had felt for her in former years was revived. It is said that he fell in love with her. However this may be, it is certain that Margaret's great beauty must have had a very important influence in deepening the sentiment of compa.s.sion which the misfortunes of the poor fugitive were so well calculated to inspire. At any rate, Breze entered at once into the queen's service with great enthusiasm. He brought with him a force of two thousand men. With this army, and with the money which she had borrowed of King Louis, Margaret resolved to make one more attempt to recover her husband's kingdom.

[Sidenote: Margaret's plans.]

At length, in the month of October, 1462, five months after she arrived in France, she set sail with a small number of vessels, containing the soldiers that Breze had provided for her. Her plan was to land in the north of England, for it was in that part of the country that the friends of the Lancaster line were most numerous and powerful.

[Sidenote: She goes to England.]

King Edward's government knew something of her plans, or, at least, suspected them, and they stationed a fleet to watch for her and intercept her. She, however, contrived to elude them, and reached the sh.o.r.es of England in safety.

[Sidenote: Hurried flight.]

The fleet approached the sh.o.r.e at Tynemouth, but the guns of the forts were pointed against her, and she was forbidden to land. She, however, succeeded, either at that place or at some other point along the coast, in effecting a debarkation; but she was threatened so soon with an attack by a large army which she heard was approaching, under the command of the Earl of Warwick, that the French troops fled precipitately to their s.h.i.+ps, leaving Margaret, the prince, Breze, and a few others who remained faithful to her, on sh.o.r.e. Being thus deserted, Margaret and her party were compelled to retreat too. They embarked on board a fisherman's boat, which was the only means of conveyance left to them, and in this manner made their way to Berwick, which town was in the possession of her friends.

[Sidenote: A storm.]

[Sidenote: s.h.i.+ps wrecked.]

[Sidenote: Holy Island.]

They were long in reaching Berwick, being detained by a storm. The storm, however, caused Margaret a much greater injury than mere detention. The s.h.i.+ps in which the French soldiers had fled were caught by it off a range of rocky cliffs lying between Tynemouth and Berwick, the most prominent of which is called Bamborough Head. The s.h.i.+ps were driven upon the rocks and rocky islands which lay along the sh.o.r.e, and there broken to pieces by the sea which rolled in upon them from the offing. All the stores, and provisions, and munitions of war which Margaret had brought from France, and which const.i.tuted almost her sole reliance for carrying on the war, were lost. Most of the men saved themselves, and made their escape to an island that lay near, called Holy Island. But here they were soon afterward attacked by a body of Yorkist troops and cut to pieces.

[Sidenote: Margaret's escape.]

Margaret reached Berwick in her fis.h.i.+ng-boat at last, bearing these terrible tidings to her friends there. One would suppose that the last hope of her being able to retrieve her fallen fortunes would now be extinguished, and that she would sink down in utter and absolute despair.

[Sidenote: Her spirit revives.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Hexham.]

[Sidenote: The king's escape.]

But it was not in Margaret's nature to despair. The more heavily the pressure of calamity and the hostility of her foes weighed upon her, the more fierce and determined was the spirit of resistance which they aroused in her bosom. In this instance, instead of yielding to dejection and despondency, she began at once to take measures for a.s.sembling a new force, and the ardor and energy which she displayed inspired all around her with some portion of her confidence and zeal.

A new army was raised during the winter. Very early in the spring it took the field, and a series of military operations followed, in which towns and castles were taken and retaken, and skirmishes fought all along the Scottish frontier. At length the contending forces were concentrated near a place called Hexham, and a general battle ensued.

The queen's army was defeated. The king, who was in the battle, had a most narrow escape. He fled on horseback--for when he was in good bodily health he was an excellent horseman--but he was so hotly pursued that three of his body-guard were taken.

It is mentioned that one of the men thus taken wore the king's cap of state, which was embroidered with two crowns of gold, one representing the kingdom of England and the other that of France, the t.i.tle to which country the English sovereigns still pretended to claim, in virtue of their former extended possessions there, although pretty much all except the town of Calais was now lost.

Perhaps the pursuers of the king's party were deceived by this royal cap, and took the wearer of it for the king. At any rate, the officer wearing the cap was taken, and the king escaped.

[Sidenote: The queen's danger.]

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