By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 301 
to move, with a small but choice body of men, from his castle of 
Middleham, to join the Duke at Ludlow. The Queen interposed 
Lord Audley with a far larger force, on the Drayton side of the 
rivulet (now called Hemp Mill brook) which divides Cheshire from 
Staffordshire, on the eve of St. Tecla’s day 1459. Each of the two 
generals occupied a strong defensive position. To receive the at- 
tack was the true policy of either. The Earl of Salisbury, who 
knew his art better than his adversary, determined not to forsake 
the vantage ground. He resolved on an operation in war, very 
delicate to conduct in the face of an intelligent enemy. During 
the night he despatched to his rear, and placed in ambush, some 
of his best men. Early on the following morning, St. Tecla’s day, 
September 23rd, which that year fell on a Sunday, he sent a flight 
of arrows into Audley’s camp, and retreated with his main body, 
taking care to be seen. Fugit in salices, et se cupit ante videri. The 
bait took with the gallant Royalists. They saw and followed. 
Audley rushed headlong into the snare. When he and his men had 
forded the brook, struggled up the opposite bank, and breasted the 
hill in haste and disorder, Salisbury, who had now got all he 
wanted, who had added the advantage of discipline to that of posi- 
tion, turned on his foe, sent volley after volley of arrows from his 
own compact lines into the confused mass of the Lancastrians, and 
obtained with ease a complete victory. Audley fell. The spot, 
marked by a stone cross,! is distant (the coincidence is curious) 
three miles from Broughton in Staffordshire. 
I approach the next Lord Audley with regret. He was a turn- 
coat. He forsook the political principles of his family. He forgot 
his gallant father’s death and Bloreheath. Among all our lords I 
believe him to have been the only apostate from the cause of con- 
stitutional liberty through the increase of Parliamentary power, 
which cause was then represented by the House of Lancaster. I wish 
_ we could disown him. He was a double traitor. As he deserted the 
1 The monument consists of a rude stone cross, standing on a pedestal, 
seemingly of great age, much battered and injured. It was repaired (as an 
inscription states) 1765. It is mentioned as an ancient monument 1686. The 
heath is now enclosed. 
