The great nobles are a curse to the country, wife.

They are, it is true, a check upon kingly ill doing and oppression; but were they, with their great arrays of retainers and feudal followers, out of the way, methinks that the citizens and yeomen would be able to hold their own against any king." "Was the battle a hard fought one ?" "I know but little of what passed, except near the standard of Warwick himself.

There the fighting was fierce indeed, for it was against the Earl that the king finally directed his chief onslaught.

Doubtless he was actuated both by a deep personal resentment against the Earl for the part he had played and the humiliation he had inflicted upon him, and also by the knowledge that a defeat of Warwick personally would be the heaviest blow that he could inflict upon the cause of Lancaster." "Then do you think the cause is lost ?" "I say not that.

Pembroke has a strong force in Wales, and if the West rises, and Queen Margaret on landing can join him, we may yet prevail; but I fear that the news of the field of Barnet will deter many from joining us.