[Enter RICHMOND, OXFORD, BLUNT, HERBERT, and others, with drum and colours]
- Richmond (Henry VII). Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
In your embowell'd bosoms, this foul swine
Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn
From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
- Earl Oxford. Every man's conscience is a thousand swords,
To fight against that bloody homicide.
- Blunt. He hath no friends but who are friends for fear.
Which in his greatest need will shrink from him.
- Richmond (Henry VII). All for our vantage. Then, in God's name, march:
True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings:
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.