Seeing this, the Earl of Douglas seized a battle-axe with both hands and dashed into the midst of the enemy, his men following close. He struck right and left, and cut a lane deep into the battalion of the English. At last three spears were thrust against him all at once. One struck him on the shoulder, one on the breast, and the stroke glanced off his armour down into his groin; the third struck him in the thigh. With these three strokes he was borne to the earth, and as soon as he fell a battle-axe hewed deep into his head. The English marched over him without knowing who he was.
Sir John Sinclair, cousin to the Earl, knelt beside him, supported his bloody head, and asked, “Cousin, how fares it with you?” “Indifferently,” said he. “Thanks be to God, there are but few of my ancestors who have died in their beds. I bid you revenge my death, for my heart grows every moment more faint. Lift up my banner, which is on the ground, from the death of the valiant squire who bore it. Shout ‘Douglas!’ and tell neither friend nor foe but what I am with you.” Having spoken thus he expired. His orders were obeyed. They cast a mantle over his body, took his banner from the dead hand of the squire, raised it, and shouted, “Douglas!” The Scots came thronging up to the cry. They levelled their lances, and pushed with such courage that the English were soon driven beyond the spot where the Douglas lay. Again the shout of “Douglas!” rose more vehement and loud. The Scots in a dense mass renewed the onset, bore the enemy before them, and broke them so completely that they never rallied again. Percy himself was made prisoner. He and his pennon, too, had to go to Scotland.
Thus the dead Douglas won the field. The Scots laid the body of their leader in a coffin, which they placed on a car, and began their march home. They came without interruption to Melrose, and there, in the fair abbey, the Douglas was laid. The banner, about which his dying charge had been given at Otterburn, was hung above the place of the warrior’s rest.”
OUDENARDE, BATTLE OF.--Fought, July 11th, 1708, between the Allies, commanded by Marlborough, and Prince Eugene and the French. The French were defeated, and completely routed, with great loss. The result of this victory was, that the French King entered into a negotiation for peace.