Send home most gracious Lord Jesu most benign, Send home thy true blood unto his proper vein, Richard duke of York, Job thy servant insign, Whom Satan not ceaseth to set at care and disdain, But by Thee preserved he may not be slain; Set him _ut sedeat in principibus_, as he did before, And so to our new song, Lord, thine ears incline, _Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit Rex Christe Redemptor_! Edward Earl of March, whose fame the earth shall spread, Richard Earl of Salisbury named prudence, With that noble knight and flower of manhood, Richard Earl of Warwick, shield of our defence, Also little Falconberg, a knight of great reverence; Jesu them restore to their honour as they had before, And ever shall we sing to thine High Excellence, _Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit Rex Christe Redemptor_! The dead man greeteth you well, That is just true as steel, With very good intent. Also the Realm of England, Soon to loose from Sorrow's bond By right indifferent judgement. THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON (+July 10, 1460+). =Source.=--_An English Chronicle_, edited by Davies, pp. 96-98. (Camden Society, 1846.) The King at Northampton lay at Friars, and had ordained there a strong and mighty field in the meadows, armed and arrayed with guns, having the river at his back. The earls [March and Warwick] with the number of sixty thousand, as it was said, came to Northampton and sent certain bishops to the King beseeching him that, in eschewing of effusion of Christian blood, he would admit and suffer the earls for to come into his presence to declare themselves as they were. The duke of Buckingham that stood beside the King, said unto them, "Ye come not as bishops for to treat for peace, but as men of arms;" because they brought with them a notable company of men of arms. They answered and said, "We come thus for surety of our persons, for they that be about the King be not our friends." "Forsooth!" said the duke, "the Earl of Warwick shall not come to the King's presence, and if he come he shall die." The messengers returned again and told this to the earls....