42

1

Rode foremost of the company,

Whose armour shone like gold.1

"Show me," said he, "whose men you be,
That hunt so boldly here;

That, without my consent, do chase

And kill my fallow deer."

The first man that did answer make,
Was noble Percy, he;

Who said, "We list2 not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be:

"Yet will we spend our dearest blood,
Thy chiefest harts to slay."

Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,
And thus in rage did say :-

:

"Ere thus I will out-braved be,
One of us two shall die:

I know thee well, an earl thou art,
Lord Percy, so am I.

“But trust me, Percy, pity it were,
And great offence, to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,
For they have done no ill:

"Let thou and I the battle try,
And set our men aside."
"Accursed be he," Earl Percy said,
"By whom this is denied."

Then stepped a gallant squire forth,
Witherington was his name,
Who said, "I would not have it told
To Henry our king, for shame,

“That e'er my captain fought on foot,
And I stood looking on;

You be two earls," quoth Witherington,

"And I a squire alone:

Whose armour-i. e. and his armour, who is, in old English, often used for and he, or and they. The Latin qui is constantly employed in the same way. 2 We list not-we care not-we are not disposed.

"I'll do the best that do I may,
While I have strength to stand;
While I have power to wield my sword,
I'll fight with heart and hand.”

Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true;
At the first flight of arrows sent,
Full threescore Scots they slew.

Yet bides Earl Douglas on the bent,1
As chieftain stout and good;
As valiant captain, all unmoved,
The shock he firmly stood.

His host he parted had in three,
As leader ware2 and tried;
And soon his spearmen on their foes
Bore down on every side.

Throughout the English archery
They dealt full many a wound;
But still our valiant Englishmen
All firmly kept their ground;

And throwing straight their bows away,
They grasped their swords so bright:
And now sharp blows, a heavy shower,
On shields and helmets light.3

They closed full fast on every side,
No slackness there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground.

Bent-hillside, declivity, field of battle.

2 Ware-wary, cautious.

3 The four preceding stanzas were introduced by Bishop Percy, from the ancient ballad, in the place of "the unmeaning lines" of the modernised edition, which are given here as a puzzle for the ingenious:

"To drive the deer with hound and horn,

Douglas bade on the bent;

Two captains moved with mickle might
Their spears to shivers went."

And oh! it was a grief to see,
And likewise for to hear
The cries of men lying in their gore,
And scattered here and there.

At last these two stout earls did meet,
Like captains of great might:
Like lions wode,1 they laid on load,
And made a cruel fight.

They fought until they both did sweat,
With swords of tempered steel;
Until the blood, like drops of rain,
They trickling down did feel.

"Yield thee, Lord Percy," Douglas said,
In faith I will thee bring,

Where thou shalt high advanced be
By James, our Scottish king:2

"Thy ransom I will freely give,
And this report of thee,

Thou art the most courageous knight
That ever I did see."

"No, Douglas," quoth Earl Percy then,

"Thy proffer I do scorn;

I will not yield to any Scot
That ever yet was born."

With that there came an arrow keen

Out of an English bow,

Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart,
A deep and deadly blow;

1 Wode-mad, fierce, wild, It seems to be connected with the word wild. 2 James our Scottish King-There is much difficulty in fixing the date of the hunting in Chevy Chace. Mention is here made of "James our Scottish King" and a little before, of "Henry our (the English) King." Now it appears that James I of Scotland came to the throne in 1424, just two years after the accession of Henry VI of England, so that, in accordance with these data, the hunting must have taken place after 1424, and yet reference is made in the poem to the subsequent battle of Homildon Hill, which we know was fought in 1402, in the reign of Henry IV, when Robert III, father of James I, was alive. The only possible way of reconciling these discrepancies, is to suppose that the author of the ancient ballad mistook Robert for James.

Who never spoke more words than these,
"Fight on, my merry men1 all;
For why, my life is at an end;
Lord Percy sees my fall.”2

Then leaving life, Earl Percy took
The dead man by the hand,
And said, “Earl Douglas, for thy life
Would I had lost my land.

"Ah me! my very heart doth bleed
With sorrow for thy sake;
For sure, a more redoubted3 knight
Mischance did never take."

A knight amongst the Scots there was,
Which saw Earl Douglas die,
Who straight in wrath did vow revenge
Upon the Lord Percy:

Sir Hugh Montgomery was he called;
Who, with a spear most bright,
Well mounted on a gallant steed,
Ran fiercely through the fight;

And passed the English archers all,
Without all dread or fear;

And through Earl Percy's body then
He thrust his hateful spear:

With such a vehement force and might
He did his body gore,

The spear went through the other side
A good cloth-yard, and more.

1

My merry men-a common expression in old ballads, nearly equivalent to "my brave fellows."

2 Lord Percy sees my fall-the introduction of this aggravating circumstance is much commended by Addison, as also Earl Percy's taking the dead man by the hand.

3 Redoubted-formidable, from the French, redouter, to fear, dread.

4 Each earl died, it will be observed, by the national weapon of his enemy; the Scot by an English arrow; the Englishman by a Scottish spear.

So thus did both these nobles die
Whose courage none could stain :
An English archer then perceived
Their noble earl was slain;

He had a bow bent in his hand,
Made of a trusty tree;
An arrow of a cloth-yard long
Up to the head drew he:

Against Sir Hugh Montgomery
So right the shaft he set,

The grey-goose wing that was thereon
In his heart's blood was wet.

This fight did last from break of day
Till setting of the sun;1

For when they rung the evening-bell,
The battle scarce was done.

With the Earl Percy there was slain
Sir John of Egerton,

Sir Robert Ratcliffe, and Sir John,
Sir James, that bold baròn:

And, with Sir George, and stout Sir James,
Both knights of good account,
Good Sir Ralph Raby there was slain,
Whose prowess did surmount.

For Witherington needs must I wail,
As one in doleful dumps;2

From break of day, &c.-This is not consistent with the opening of the ballad, where we are told of the huntsmen having dined before the arrival of Douglas and his men. In the old song, this inconsistency is absent :

"This battle begun in Cheviot

An hour before the none, (noon,)
And when even-song bell was rung,
The battle was not half done."

It would appear from this quotation that the evening-bell, or curfew, was substituted by the moderniser after the Reformation, for the vesper bell of the ancient writer.

2 Doleful dumps-i. e. "I, as one in deep concern, must lament." This expression, which has now become ludicrous, was formerly only employed in the sense given above. Dump is by some derived from dumb, and thought to xpress the silent grief which arises from deep affliction. It sometimes