A.D. 1265. ANNOUNCEMENT OE ΤΠΕ EARL OF LEICESTER. 433 rected his attack against the first cohort of the enemy's army, and having slain or taken prisoners many of the nobles of that cohort, he entirely routed it ; and then proceeding straight onwards to the line behind, in which there was a great multitude of Londoners, barons, and knights, he struck such terror into them all, that the bloody and beaming sword slew all those whom flight did not save. But as the two kings before mentioned were stationed in their second line, attended by only their ordinary domestic train, the earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and the barons who were stationed in the centre of their army, folding up and lowering their standards, came down the steep side of the hill, and bravely attacked them. And the battle having been fought, and the aforesaid king of Germany being taken prisoner, with John Comyn, Philip Basset, who fought with gallantry beyond all his comrades, and beyond all the other mayors on the side of the aforesaid king of England, and a great slaughter having taken place of many persons whom the two parties had led to the battle, the king of England returned to the priory of Lewes, attended by only a few guards, many noble men, such as the earl of Warrenne, William de Valence, Hugh Bigod, and several more fleeing to Pevensey Castle, and from thence crossing the sea to procure aid. But the third and last cohort, consisting of four hundred guards armed with breastplates, deserting their lord the king on the field of battle, whether it was done guiltily or innocently, fled away in a shameful manner, seeking the hiding-places and sanctuaries of the church. And the aforesaid earls and barons entering the town of Lewes, took all the property and all the persons whom they could find between the castle and the priory. At last, when the son of the king before mentioned had returned from the slaughter of the Londoners and the rest of the fugitives with his men from the Marches, and the rest of his warlike friends, whose number was twice as great as the number of the enemy, and when he and his men were preparing themselves manfully for the encounter, the cunning of the earl of Leicester circumvented them each and all. For, by means of some of the Minor Brothers, he announced to the king of England and his son, that, imitating the peaceful and benevolent disposition of the said king and his friends, to prevent the effusion of human blood, he and his friends would willingly submit their cause to the decision of any one whom the king thought VOL. II. !P ν