`` Nay , they follow him gleefully , '' replied the other ; `` for if he be exact to punish , he is most open-handed to reward . And if he spare not the blood and sweat of others , he is ever liberal of his own , still in the first front of battle , still the last to sleep . He will go far , will Crookback Dick o ' Gloucester ! '' The young knight , if he had before been brave and vigilant , was now all the more inclined to watchfulness and courage . His sudden favour , he began to perceive , had brought perils in its train . And he turned from the archer , and once more scanned anxiously the market-place . It lay empty as before . `` I like not this quietude , '' he said . `` Doubtless they prepare us some surprise . '' And , as if in answer to his remark , the archers began once more to advance against the barricade , and the arrows to fall thick . But there was something hesitating in the attack . They came not on roundly , but seemed rather to await a further signal . Dick looked uneasily about him , spying for a hidden danger . And sure enough , about half way up the little street , a door was suddenly opened from within , and the house continued , for some seconds , and both by door and window , to disgorge a torrent of Lancastrian archers . These , as they leaped down , hurriedly stood to their ranks , bent their bows , and proceeded to pour upon Dick 's rear a flight of arrows . At the same time , the assailants in the market-place redoubled their shot , and began to close in stoutly upon the barricade . Dick called down his whole command out of the houses , and facing them both ways , and encouraging their valour both by word and gesture , returned as best he could the double shower of shafts that fell about his post . Meanwhile house after house was opened in the street , and the Lancastrians continued to pour out of the doors and leap down from the windows , shouting victory , until the number of enemies upon Dick 's rear was almost equal to the number in his face . It was plain that he could hold the post no longer ; what was worse , even if he could have held it , it had now become useless ; and the whole Yorkist army lay in a posture of helplessness upon the brink of a complete disaster . The men behind him formed the vital flaw in the general defence ; and it was upon these that Dick turned , charging at the head of his men .
So vigorous was the attack , that the Lancastrian XXXXX gave ground and staggered , and , at last , breaking their ranks , began to crowd back into the houses from which they had so recently and so vaingloriously sallied .
Dick Lancastrians Yorkist archers attack disaster fall first liberal watchfulness