"Hast thou seen aught of Hugh?" asked Leofric; but Jack shook his head. He had had his hands full in helping first his own wounded comrade, and afterwards those who lay stretched upon the field of victory. He had been working and toiling from dawn till now--marching, fighting, and carrying in the wounded. He had had no thoughts to spare for any but his own side. A shout of laughter, and the tramp of many feet, announced that something fresh had happened. There was a great tumult of sound, and Jack darted out to see what was happening. He came back with his face bubbling over with mirth. "They are bringing in Richard, treacherous Richard, the King of the Romans," he cried--"he who, in his letter but the other day, called himself 'always august,' They are calling him a bad miller, and twitting him with his august windmill! Oh, thou shouldest see his face! He looks like a dozen thunder-clouds all rolled into one!" A great burst of cheering from some place hard by told that the prisoner had been brought to Earl Simon's tent; and with the failure of the light came the knowledge that the battle was fought and won. The field of Lewes had decided the fate of the country for the present. The Barons had achieved an undoubted victory. CHAPTER XXIV. _AFTER THE BATTLE._ "Sitteth all still, and hearkeneth to me: The King of Alemagne, by my loyalty, Thirty thousand pounds asked he, For to make the peace in the countree, And so he did more. Richard, though thou be ever trichard [treacherous], Tricken [trick us] shalt thou never more. "The King of Alemagne gathered his host, Made him a castle of a mill-post, Went with his pride and his mickle boast, Brought from Alemagne many a sorry ghost To store Windsor. Richard, though thou be ever trichard, Tricken shalt thou never more." This was the song which resounded through the camp of the victors after the battle of Lewes, together with others in praise of De Montfort, too lengthy to be quoted here. Richard, the King's brother, King of the Romans and Earl of Cornwall, was the especial butt of the popular disfavour, and his recent behaviour had added greatly to his unpopularity. He had betrayed a very grasping spirit in claiming as his individual due the entire sum of thirty thousand pounds, offered by the Barons as an indemnity to the King; and his haughty note to the Barons afterwards was taken in very bad part, seeing that once he had been their friend and ally. He was looked upon as being both treacherous and vindictive; and this song (which is remarkable as being the earliest specimen of its kind in the English language, nearly all such compositions being in Norman-French or Latin up to this date) was composed in the camp at Lewes, and sung lustily by the soldiers in the very ears of the captive Richard.