RATTLE OF FLODDEN 299 



exasperated, how sa^'a<;•e, how frantic must have been his advisers, 

 especially Mastcr-guinier Borthwick ! 



"Oh! for one hour of Wallace wight, 

 Or well-skilled Bruce to rule the fight ! 



But, 



" The precious hour has passed in vain, 

 And England's host has gained the plain." 



Why then? Not, as some have thought, because he was apatlietic, 

 or pre-occupied with the Fair of Ford ; but because with his 

 overstrained ideas of chivalry he declined to take what seemed 

 to him to be a mean advantage. " I am determined," he said, 

 "to have them all before me on a plain field, and see then 

 what they can do all before me." But there are good 

 grounds for supposing that James was ignorant of the march 

 of the Van Guard, and was under the impression that the 

 entire English army was crossing, or about to cross, at 

 Sandyford. Telescopes had not been invented ; the Intelligence 

 Department was probably weak ; the undulating nature of the 

 country was favourable to the concealment of movements ; 

 and it was most likely that until Howard's leading column 

 unexpectedly revealed itself as it roiuided the West end of 

 Branxton Marsh, the Scots had not j^erceived its movements. 

 As soon as James did realize the significance of the English 

 tactics, with an exercise of prompter generalship than might 

 have been expected, he determined to forestall them in their 

 next probable movement by at once occupying the commanding 

 position of Branxton Hill, a ridge more than a mile in length 

 situated between Flodden and Branxton, and a mile North- 

 ward of the former. As the old ballad has it : 



"There was another hill which 



Branxton Hill is called by name, 

 The Scots there scoured with right good will, 

 Lest the Englishmen should get the same." 



The weather was thick and drizzly, with a South Avind, in 

 consequence of which James ordered all the litter and ordure 

 of his camp to be set on fire, so as with smoke still further to 



