and being ridden over by the cavalry. The Milanese rode through the entire English formation, dispersing the longbowmen on the English right. Many of the English panicked in the face of the Milanese charge, and a Captain Young was afterwards found guilty of cowardice for retreating with the 500 men under his command without orders, considering the battle as lost. Young was hanged, drawn and quartered as punishment for his retreat. English mounted troops fled to Conches, where they proclaimed the battle lost to the town's small garrison. At Bernay, more Englishmen announced Bedford's defeat. At Pont-Audemer, news of an English disaster provoked an uprising, with retreating English troops divested of their armour and horses. A series of smaller uprisings in the countryside also took place. The Milanese pursued the fleeing English and attacked the English baggage train, triggering an instant rout. Some of the English rearguard ran away, fleeing on horseback or foot with the Milanese continuing to either give chase or loot the baggage train. Men-at-arms clash After this devastating cavalry charge, Bedford rallied his soldiers, the English men-at-arms showing great discipline and reforming their ranks. Sensing a victory, the French men-at-arms led a confused charge, with Narbonne's men reaching the English before the rest of their comrades. The French disorder was in part a result of the desire to close in fast to avoid English arrows. As the French advanced under Aumale, they shouted "Montjoie! Saint Denis!". Bedford's men-at-arms advanced in good order towards their French opponents, pausing often and giving a shout each time. The men-at-arms under Salisbury were hard-pressed by the Scots. A small force of French heavy cavalry on the right attempted to outflank the English line but were repelled by arrows from the redeployed English left wing of 2,000 longbowmen, who used the lines of tethered horses for cover. The head-on clash between the superbly armoured English and Franco-Scottish men-at-arms on the field of Verneuil, both of whom had marched on foot into battle, resulted, in the words of the British medievalist Desmond Seward, in "a hand-to-hand combat whose ferocity astounded even contemporaries". Wavrin recalled how "the blood of the dead spread on the field and that of the wounded ran in great streams all over the earth". For about three-quarters of an hour, Frenchmen, Scotsmen and Englishmen stabbed, hacked and cut each other down on the field of Verneuil without either side