Page 22 - A Knight of the White Cross

CHAPTER II

THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY

Riding fast, Sir Thomas Tresham crossed the Thames at Reading before
any news of the battle of Barnet had arrived there. On the third day after

leaving St. Albans he reached Westbury, and there heard that the news had
been received of the queen's landing at Plymouth on the very day on which

her friends had been defeated at Barnet, and that she had already been
joined by the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Devon, and others, and that
Exeter had been named as the point of rendezvous for her friends. As the

Lancastrians were in the majority in Wiltshire and Somerset, there was no
longer any fear of arrest by partisans of York, and after resting for a day Sir

Thomas Tresham rode quietly on to Exeter, where the queen had already
arrived.

The battle of Barnet had not, in reality, greatly weakened the Lancastrian
cause. The Earl of Warwick was so detested by the adherents of the Red

Rose that comparatively few of them had joined him, and the fight was
rather between the two sections of Yorkists than between York and
Lancaster. The Earl's death had broken up his party, and York and

Lancaster were now face to face with each other, without his disturbing
influence on either side. Among those who had joined the queen was

Tresham's great friend, the Grand Prior of St. John's. Sir Thomas took up
his lodgings in the house where he had established himself. The queen was
greatly pleased at the arrival of Dame Tresham, and at her earnest request

the latter shared her apartments, while Gervaise remained with his father.

"So this is the young Knight of St. John," the prior said, on the evening of
the arrival of Sir Thomas. "I would, Tresham, that I were at present at
Rhodes, doing battle with the infidels, rather than engaged in this warfare

against Englishmen and fellow Christians."

"I can well understand that," Sir Thomas said.