220

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XX.

JG!I3.

head would pay for that treason to which persecution had- driven him. With admirable generosity they pretended not torecognise him, and suffered him to make his escape in thetumult.

It was only on such occasions as this that the whole great-ness of William’s character appeared. Amidst the rout anduproar, while arms and standards were flung away, while mul-titudes of fugitives were choking up the bridges and fords ofthe Gette or perishing in its waters, the King, having directedTalmash to superintend the retreat, put himself at the head ofa few brave regiments, and by desperate efforts arrested theprogress of the enemy. His risk was greater than that whichothers ran. For he could not be persuaded either to encumberhis feeble frame with a cuirass, or to hide the ensigns of thegarter. He thought his star a good rallying point for his owntroops, and only smiled when he was told that it Avas a goodmark for the enemy. Many fell on his right hand and on hisleft. Two led horses, which in the field always closely folloivedhis person, were struck dead by cannon shots. One musketball passed through the curls of his Avig, another through hiscoat: a third bruised his side and tore his blue riband totatters. Many years later greyheaded old pensioners who creptabout the arcades and alleys of Chelsea Hospital used to relatehow he charged at the head of Galway’s horse, hoAV he dis-mounted four times to put heart into the infantry, how herallied one corps AA'hich seemed to be shrinking: “That is notthe way to fight, gentlemen. You must stand close up to them.Thus, gentlemen, thus.” “You might have seen him,” aneyewitness Avrote, only four days after the battle, “with hissword in his hand, throAving himself upon the enemy. It iscertain that, onetime, among the rest, he was seen at thehead of two English regiments, and that he fought seven withthese two in sight of the whole army, driving them before him