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and whether from the superstition affecting his men, or from the knowledge that 
Glendower had no supply of provisions with him, Mortimer did not attempt to 
cross the valley, but used the utmost precautions to prevent supplies from reach- 
ing the enemy. The plan was completely successful, and forced upon Glendower 
the necessity of taking the offensive. He decided upon doing so, and having 
made a long spirited address to his forces, which inflamed their ardour to the 
utmost, he sent a large body of men, with many archers, the evening before to 
cross the river higher up, and attack the rear of the enemy, and when he observed 
this manceuvre succeeded in driving Mortimer from the banks of the river, Glen- 
dower immediately crossed it, he himself being the first to reach the opposite 
bank. Mortimer quickly returned, and a single combat ensued between the two 
brave leaders. The victory was long disputed, but it ended at last in favour of 
Glendower, who disarmed and wounded Mortimer, and took him prisoner. 
Shakespeare thus graphically discribes the fight :— 
When on the gentle Avvow's sedgy bank, 
In single opposition, hand to hand, 
He did confound the best part of an hour 
In changing hardiment with great Glendower, 
Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink 
Upon agreement, of swift Avvow’s flood, 
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, 
Ran fearfully among the trembiing reeds, 
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants. 
Henry IV., Part I., Scene 3. 
Shakespeare names the Severn by mischance, instead of the Arrow, to which river 
his description, and all collateral circumstances undoubtedly point. The defeat 
of Mortimer caused the overthrow of his army. It gave way on all sides, and 
the slaughter was very great. The arrival of the news in London is thus given 
by Shakespeare in the same play— 
When all athwart there came 
A post from Wales, laden with heavy news ; 
Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer, 
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight 
Against the irregular and wild Glendower, 
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken, 
A thousand of his people butchered. 
Henry IV., Part I., Scene 1. 
The loss was not quite so great in all probability, but the victory was 
decisive, and Glendower spared no energy to render it complete. He sent men at 
once to occupy the camps of Risbury, Croft, Ambery, and Wapley, and marched 
himself to Leominster, which yielded without a struggle. He despoiled the 
Priory and appropriated the revenue to his own use, and rewarded his followers 
by distributing different districts of the county to them. This camp and the 
surrounding district between the two rivers he gave to Ievan, or Evan of Wales, 
comprising Ivington and Brierly. To Rhys ap Griffith were alloted Risbury, 
Humber, and Stoke; Eaton, Stretford, and Hennor were awarded to Ap Lihwyd, 
or Hackluit, as the family name was afterwards called, according to Leland, but 
nevertheless a Hackluyt was sheriff of Herefordshire in the first year of 
Edward II., A.D. 1309, long before Owen Glendower was born. Philip ap 
Morgan and other followers were awarded other lands. That these followers 
retained possession of the estates thus given them is proved by the fact of their 
