_North._ Why, he is dead.[3292] See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know 85 Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes[3293] That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;[3294] Tell thou an earl his divination lies,[3295] And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. 90 _Mor._ You are too great to be by me gainsaid: Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. _North._ Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.[3296] I see a strange confession in thine eye:[3296] Thou shakest thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin[3296] 95 To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so;[3296][3297] The tongue offends not that reports his death:[3296] And he doth sin that doth belie the dead;[3296] Not he which says the dead is not alive.[3296] Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news[3296] 100 Hath but a losing office, and his tongue[3296] Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,[3296] Remember'd tolling a departing friend.[3296][3298] _L. Bard._ I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. _Mor._ I am sorry I should force you to believe[3299] 105 That which I would to God I had not seen;[3300] But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rendering faint quittance, wearied and outbreathed, To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down[3301] The never-daunted Percy to the earth, 110 From whence with life he never more sprung up. In few, his death, whose spirit lent a fire Even to the dullest peasant in his camp, Being bruited once, took fire and heat away From the best-temper'd courage in his troops; 115 For from his metal was his party steel'd;[3302] Which once in him abated, all the rest[3303] Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead: And as the thing that's heavy in itself, Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed, 120 So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss, Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim[3304] Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety, Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester[3305] 125 Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,[3306] The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword Had three times slain the appearance of the king, 'Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight, 130 Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all Is that the king hath won, and hath sent out A speedy power to encounter you, my lord, Under the conduct of young Lancaster And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.