Rev. R. Jones on the Battle of Flodden Field. 387 



strong evidence that none of them could be relied upon with 

 any degree of certainty ; nor even at this day does history 

 satisfactorily enlighten us on the subject. There is however 

 no doubt but that he fell on the field, and in all probability 

 was buiied amongst the slain. Stripped of his armour, 

 despoiled of all decorations belonging to his rank, covered 

 with wounds, clotted with gore, and besmeared with blood, 

 it would be almost impossible to distinguish him, with any 

 degree of certainty, amongst so great a number of naked 

 dead. 



From ten to twelve thousand fell on the field with their 

 king, and we may rely that nearly as many, if not an equal 

 number on the side of the English, for whoever heard of a 

 Scotchman being in battle without leaving indelible proofs 

 that he had been there. It was the tug of Greek with 

 Greek, and w^e may almost affirm that no quarter was either 

 given or taken; everyone fought to the last — even the devoted- 

 ness of Leonidas and his Spartan band at Thermopylae, did 

 not surpass the ardour and heroic valour of the king and 

 those around him. 



From such a number of slain, we may judge pretty accur- 

 ately the number engaged in the battle, Scotland on the 

 Borough Moor, counted one hundred thousand men ; but 

 certainly many of these returned home laden with plunder 

 before the day of battle. Bishop Ruthal in his letter, men- 

 tions that 20,000 returned to their own country, after the 

 taking of Norham Castle. Lindsay of Pitscottie, in his 

 account of Flodden Field, says that Lady Heron in her 

 letter to Surrey, diminishes the Scotch army to ten thousand 

 men, and very shortly after the same historian mentions that 

 the van-guard was given to Huntley and Home, who were 

 in number ten thousand men, and the king took the great 

 battle unto himself, with all the nobility of Scotland, which 

 passed not above twenty thousand men. These conflicting 

 and contradictory statements are of very little value ; indeed, 

 after all we must draw our own conclusions from the different 

 circumstances bearing more particularly on the event. Scot- 

 land we know mourned for her dead, from the Palace to the 

 humble cot ; and England's forces were so shattered, crippled, 

 and diminished in this fearful battle, that she durst not 

 attack, or invade the territory of her foe. Both nations 

 withdrew from the bloody strife terribly cut up and thinned 

 in numbers, and not till the next day was it known which 

 side was the victor. 



