Their fortitude was giving way to despair; and the successful, elated with the promises of victory, found no equal disputants in men dismayed by the certainty of a defeat. Perplexed amid the various and ineffectual efforts of the other bodies of the royal troops, the disheartened defenders of the field yielded beneath the shock of the adverse weapons. The victorious soldiers now fiercely plunging in amidst the routed dragoons, many of whom at this time were on foot and in the most appalling confusion, saw them quickly disappearing beneath the havoc of their swords and the fury of their horses. The infantry were for the most part destroyed; for being intercepted by a body of cavalry, scarce a man survived the carnage. {19a} There was now no safety but in a dishonorable flight. The pursuit continued beyond Horncastle with unremitting fury; and along the road were strewed the horse and the rider, the dead and the dying. {19b} The soldiers under the command of Manchester, who as yet had partaken in no respect in the glory of the blood-shed, reserved their efforts for securing the prisoners, and assisting the scarce breathing wounded of the royal army, who were scattered about the field in groups. Such partizans as had recently been embodied by the commission of array, were pitiably supplicating the mercy of their conquerors. Cursing with deep execration that little regard which had hurried them to the fight, without a feeling of interest in its issue, they cried out that the commission of array had brought them thither against their wills, and blessing the cause of liberty and religion, added “We die as true servants of the parliament as any in England, and woe be to those who were the cause that Lincoln and York became the prey of such a war.” {19c} Though the battle was fought with determined obstinacy; yet, whilst the parties maintained their ground, the loss was comparatively small: the havoc that ensued was among the routed and the flying. There were killed but few on the side of the parliament. Those of rank who were slain of the royal forces, were Sir George Bolles, and Sir Ingram Hopton. The prisoners, about one thousand in number, were the wounded on the field, and those parties of the dispersed fugitives, who to avoid the overwhelming carnage of their pursuers, had secreted themselves amongst the rugged and winding banks of a neighbouring river: many indeed were taken whilst seeking refuge in the very waters, where some had already perished, bleeding and wearied in their armour, overcome in their inability to recover themselves from the deeper parts of the stream. The trophies which the conquerors obtained in the fight of Winceby field, were arms for fifteen hundred men, and thirty-five standards. {20a}