So marked, I went boldly to the market-place, and followed a press of men into the chief inn of the place in order to get a can of ale, that I might be welcome at one of the fires, where I should best hear what was to be told. Inside the tavern all was confusion, the good old host and his tapster being hard put to with a noisy crowd thronging them for ale that could not be drawn fast enough. I knew the old man by repute, but well I knew his orphan niece, fair Mistress Annot, whose face, when she stayed at a mill, where I was welcome, made me feel my loneliness overmuch at times, for she did not scorn a forest man with whom her cousin, the miller, had friendly dealings. So as the throng shouted and pushed round me, the thought of the girl's terror with this wild mob in the house came over me. But I could do nothing for her, and presently I got a can of ale and went out and across to a big fire, and sat down in a place left vacant when a man rose. None heeded me, for there was constant coming and going.
There were many things that were not all of revelry after victory that I saw as I sat and listened. One or two houses had been wrecked--those of known Lancastrians, as one would think--and one was burning out, fired early in the day. Many times I saw parties bringing in wounded men, and more than once a hush fell on those who drank and wrangled, as the sound of a little silver bell came down the street, and a priest and his servers passed, bearing the last sacrament to some man who had been brought here to die. There were more things to be seen also, and it was a heavy tale that I must take back with morning. The Lancastrian forces had been utterly scattered, and some said that the King had been taken. The great Duke of Somerset had been taken and beheaded here that evening, and it would seem that most of the Queen's best followers had been slain or were prisoners. The only good hearing was that the Queen was thought to have escaped altogether, and that the army was to march on Bamborough Castle at once, for it was her best stronghold, and a likely rallying place. The way for her flight would soon be clear, therefore.
Then, all in a moment, I forgot even the Queen, for from the tavern came the noise of a riot, and some leapt up and ran thither, I with the fear for Annot again. Men came tumbling out of the doorway, and I asked a grey-haired and well-armed man, who almost upset me in his haste, what was amiss.