Thomas Howard, dreading the consequences of a defeat, dispatched a messenger to his father, Lord Surrey, entreating him to extend his line with all speed, and strengthen the van by drawing up a part of the centre on its left. The manœuvre was judicious, but it would have required too long a time to execute; and at this critical moment, Lord Dacre galloped forward with his cavalry to the support of his advance. Nothing could have been more timely than this assistance; he not only checked the career of the Scottish Earls, but drove back the division of Huntly with great slaughter; whilst Home’s men, imagining they had already gained the victory, began to disperse and pillage. Dacre and the Admiral then turned their attack against another portion of the Scottish advance, led by the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, who met them with levelled spears, and resolutely withstood the charge. Whilst such was the state of things on the right, a desperate contest was carried on between James and the Earl of Surrey in the centre. In his ardour, the King forgot that the duties of a commander were distinct from the indiscriminate valour of a knight: he placed himself in the front of his lances and billmen, surrounded by his nobles, who, whilst they pitied the gallant weakness of such conduct, disdained to leave their sovereign unsupported. The first consequence of this was so furious a charge upon the English centre, that its ranks were broken, and for a while the standard of the Earl of Surrey was in danger; but by this time Lord Dacre and the Admiral had been successful in defeating the division led by Crawford and Montrose, and wheeling towards the left, they turned their whole strength against the flank of the Scottish centre, which wavered under the shock, till the Earl of Bothwell came up with the reserve, and restored the day in this quarter. On the right, the divisions led by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle were composed chiefly of the Highlanders and Isle-men, the Campbells, Macleans, Macleods, and other hardy clans, who were dreadfully galled by the discharge of the English archers. Unable to reach the enemy with their broadswords and axes, which formed their only weapons, and not very amenable to discipline, their squadrons began to rush fiercely forward, eager for closer fight, and thoughtless of the fatal consequences of breaking their array. It was to little purpose that La Motte and the French officers with him attempted by entreaties and blows to restrain them; they neither understood their language nor cared for their violence, but threw themselves sword in hand upon the English. The squares of English pikemen stood to their ground; and though for a moment the shock of the mountaineers was terrible, its force once sustained, became spent with its own violence, and nothing remained but a disorganisation so complete that to recover their ranks was impossible. The consequence was, a total rout of the right wing of the Scots,