1st Pea. Heav'n save us all! it is the warlike yell
Of those damn'd Britons that increaseth so.
By all the holy saints our men are worsted!
(an increasing noise heard without.)
Look! yonder look! they turn their backs and fly.
3d Pea. O, blasting shame! where fights brave Ethwald now?
He is, I fear, far in the distant wing.
Let us be gone! we are too near them here:
The flight comes this way: hear that horrid sound!
The saints preserve us!
(The sound of the battle increases, and is heard nearer. The Peasants come hastily down from the bank and exeunt. Enter Edward with several followers disordered and panic-struck.)
1st. Fol. (looking round.) They cease to follow us: this thickset grove
Has stopped the pursuit: here we are secure.
(Edward throws himself down at the root of a tree, and covers his face with his hands.
2d Fol. (filling his helmet with water from a stream, and presenting it to Edw.)
My prince, this cooling water will refresh you.
Ed. (keeping his face still covered with one hand and waving him off with the other.)
Away, away! and do not speak to me!
(A deep pause, the noise of the battle is again heard coming nearer.)
1st Fol. We must not tarry here. (to Edw.)
My Lord, the farther thickets of this wood
Will prove a sure concealment: shall we move?
