412 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



menaced the town, another crossed the river and threat- 

 ened the castle. The earl's position was now untenable, 

 and he was obliged to fly to his apparently impregnable 

 fortress. 



Tutbiiry is only about five miles from Burton, so 

 that Lancaster soon reached his home, though scarcely had 

 he got across the drawbridge before the royal forces were 

 at the gate. It was soon discovered that to attempt 

 defence was impossible, and to come out on the Stafford- 

 shire side quite impracticable; while the river Dove, at that 

 time greatly flooded and scarcely fordable, and over which 

 there was no bridge, appeared to cut him [completely off 

 from Derbyshire, through which he might have passed to 

 his castle of Pontefract, in Yorkshire. Thus hemmed in, 

 nothing was left but surrender or hazardous flight across 

 the Dove. 



The latter alternative was adopted ; and after leaving 

 his baggage and military chest in charge of his treasurer 

 Leicester, with directions to convey them in safety, and 

 as quickly as possible, to Pontefract, he and his followers 

 made the attempt, and, in spite of the high floods, suc- 

 ceeded in gaining the opposite bank in safety. 



Such, however, was not the fortune of Leicester's 

 charge — the military chest, which contained all the money 

 the earl had been amassing to pay his retainers and dis- 

 charge the current expenses of the disastrous war he had 

 undertaken. This servant, following his master at night, 

 did all he could to convey the treasure safely from the 

 castle, but in the confusion of getting down the steep hill 

 and across the swollen river in the dark, with a fugitive 

 panic-stricken guard and terrified waggoners, the chest 



