CRESSIAC'S MAGNANIMITY. 111 He fell into a ditch, crying aloud to his victor, "I yield myself to you, for that you be a seemly knight;" who, satisfied with this submission, and having other matters in hand, threw himself into the thickest of the combat, while the captive was conducted to the tent of the general, Lord Leicester'. The engagement was hot, and cost the enemy many lives, but few of the English were missing. Willoughby was extremely forward in the combat: at one moment his basses (or mantle) was torn from him, but re-captured. When all was over, Captain Cressiac, being still in his Excellency's tent, refused to acknowledge himself prisoner to any but the knight to whom. he had submitted on the field. There is something in this and the like incidents of the period, which recal us very agreeably to recollections of earlier days of chivalry and romance. Cressiac added, that if he were to see again the knight to whom he had surrendered himself, in the armour he then wore, he should immediately recognise him, and that to him, and him only, would he yield. Accordingly Lord Willoughby presenting himself before him in complete armour, he immediately exclaimed, "I yield to you," and was adjudged to him as his prisoner 2. It was in this skirmish that the gallant and lamented Sir Philip Sidney, the boast of his age, and the hope of many admiring 1 Stow's Annals. A misrepresentation of this transaction has arisen from an error on the part of the translator of Camden's original words on the subject; he says that Lord Willoughby unhorsed a cornet of horse, under the leading of George Cressiac; but a quotation from the Latin words of Camden will place the matter in its true light: “Angli equitum turmam sub Georgio Cressiaco Albano emissam profligant, ipsum, equo a Willoughbeio disjectum, capiunt, Hannibale Gonzaga, cum multis aliis, interfecto." Vide also Heame's edition, vol. iii. p. 462. 2 Stow's Annals. 112 SIDNEY'S DANGEROUS WOUND. friends, received the fatal wound, which cut short the thread of a brief but brilliant existence. During the whole day he had been one of the foremost in action, and once rushed to the assistance of his friend Lord Willoughby, on observing him "nearly surrounded by the enemy" and in imminent peril: after seeing him in safety, he continued the combat with great spirit, until he received a shot in the thigh, as he was remounting a second horse, the first having been killed under him'. Lord Leicester's letter to Lord Burghley will be more valuable than any secondhand description. "My Lord," writes Leicester, "our proceedings here, God be thanked, goeth well forward hitherto; only a particular grief to myself hath happened by the hurt of my dear nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, in a skirmish upon Thursday last, in the morning, with a musket-shot upon 2 his thigh, three fingers above his knee, a very dangerous wound, the bone being broken in pieces; but yet he is of good comfort, and the surgeons are in good hope of his life, if no ill accident come, as yet there is not. He slept this night four hours together, and did eat with good appetite afterward. I pray God save his life, and I care not how lame he be. There was at this the skirmish only two hundred and fifty English horse, and most of them the best of the camp, unawares to me; but, this mishap set aside, there was not such an encounter this forty years, for, besides the horse, there were but three hundred footmen. The enemy-twelve hundred horse, the whole flower of them, and three thousand footmen, all placed and prepared beforehand. . . . . . These few maintained the fight two 1 Zouch's Life of Sidney. 2 The bullet entered so deeply, that it could not be found till after death. Zouch's Life of Sidney. LEICESTER'S LETTER. 113 hours together; many of theirs killed, few of ours; name hurt or killed, but Philip hurt. none of "The Marquis del Guasto, general of the cavalry, was there; Captain George Bato, lieutenant to the Marquis; the Count Hannibal Gonzago, killed, with three others, whose names we know not, but they had cassocks all embroidered and laced with silver and gold. "Captain George Cressiac, captain of the guard, and of all the Albanoises, taken prisoner by my Lord Willoughby, and overthrown by him to the ground first. "There was too many, indeed, at this skirmish of the better sort, but I was offended when I knew it, but could not fetch them back; but since they have all so well escaped (save my dear nephew), I would not for ten thousand pounds but they had been there, since they have all now that honour they have. For your Lordship never heard so desperate charges as they gave upon the in the face of their muskets, and the noble manenemy ner Sir John Norreys, Sir William Russell, and Sir Thomas Perrot, Sir Philip Sidney, and others led still, and divers their horses being killed, stepped aside and changed their horses, and to it again. And notwithstanding all those troops, he did not put in one waggon, save thirty that got in in the night. These noblemen and gentlemen brought with them three cornets of the enemy's, taken from the enemy, which was no small dishonour to them. "R. LEYCESTER '." The romantic valour displayed in the above engagement was certainly deserving of reward; and Lord Leicester accordingly, 1 Letter of Lord Leicester to Lord Burghley, September 24th, 1586. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 36. |