All night we heard guns. We were told, however, not to make a sound.....or make a move, so they wouldn't know how close we were - or far.
I lay with my other soldiers, waiting for the dawn. I felt a strange stirring about what was to come........ I somehow felt peace was coming. Maybe we would not have to fight anymore.
Have you ever felt....that history was behind you, and you stood in fulfillment of it? The weight of the ages....pressing on you, and here you were! I was restless, far too excited to stay still. At the same time, there was a lightness and calm in my being. I felt deliverance coming. I felt that history....had led to this day.
It was a strange and somewhat scary premonition. I was never one to think about history, or what it could mean. But lately the weariness of war had crept in. My strength was gone, and I could no longer tell who needed my allegience - the red or the white. But I needed to fight, for my family - to live on. And all I wanted was to hang up my sword and rest on my laurels - Mortimer's Cross, St Albans, Wakefield, then Towton.
But it had been enough. I wanted peace.
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An hour before dawn.
A thick, enveloping fog was all we could see. The word was out - there would be a decisive push before the enemy got into position.
Once more the sounds of men readying for conflict was heard, permeating the blanket of fog. The day, 14th April. The year, 1471. The day our Lord rose from the dead, centuries ago. Here we rose from the night, ready to shed blood.
We attacked without warning, and there was no time for the enemy. They had not known how close we had been that night! All the same, the columns before us were not what we had been told we'd see.
In the gradually emerging day, my eyes suddenly caught King Edward's banner - the blazing sun and the white rose. And I saw, as in a vision, a white steed. King Edward rode on a white steed, with the sun.
Why did this image capture my mind? I stood still, as the battle raged around me.
As I stood transfixed, time seemed to stop. I felt a searing pain in my thigh and then another in my side. I went down. There was a blazing white light in my eyes, but I did not lose the sight of King Edward on that white steed.
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
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When I awoke, the world had gotten slower......and had also gone totally silent and wordless. I looked for King Edward, and I could not find him. I was picked up from the bloody grass, and slowly led away to the top of a nearby hill. A clean, pure, refreshing wind blew over my gaping wounds.
In front of me was a vision that took my breath away and I fell faint, opening my mouth to scream and finding no voice.
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
I saw then, the only true one, who demanded my allegience. I belonged, like I never had in any battle on earth. I wanted to be in "the armies of heaven, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean"!! I just bowed my head and lay down. I could not raise my head because that vision was too terrifying. All strength and life had slipped from my body.
Then I felt my head being raised. I opened my eyes slowly, and found someone raising me up. As he did, I felt the strength return to my body and I stood up. The vision had gone; now I was walking in a garden. It was dawn.
I never felt as alive as I did then......I felt my life was beginning. The same clean, refreshing wind blew through my hair. I turned to look at the man leading me. He led me along a winding path, to a stone-cut tomb. The stone lay split open and a strange light shone forth from the tomb. It could be just one tomb I knew of - and I knew who had lain there!!!!!
I fell down in front of the tomb, and surrendered up my life. I knew, in an instant, why I had been led to this day - how history leads us along and pushes us to our destiny. My destiny was to give my life away to one who had laid down his.....for me.
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As I lay there, entrusting my feeble life into the hands of the Almighty, the vision faded. A tremendous peace filled me, and lay heavily upon my wounded heap of a body. Blood, clotted, and still flowing, covered my feeble frame as I lay on the grass. Pain returned, slowly, and I felt my life ebbing.
It was a bright, clear morning now and I was lifted away, and cared for. I lived again.
I learned later, of King Edward's crushing victory, of Warwick's end, and the victory of the White Rose. Relics of my battle.
My life was in the hands of the rider.....on the white horse. And I knew where my allegience lay - with the armies of heaven.
