Then, having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bowmen mustered on the hills,

Well able to endure;

Their backsides all, with special care,

That day were guarded sure.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods
The nimble deer to take;

And with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry went, t
To view the slaughtered deer;
Quoth he, Earl Douglas promised
This day to meet me here:

If that I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay,-
With that a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Earl did say:

Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;
Full twenty-hundred Scottish spears,
All marching in our sight;

All men of pleasant Tivydale,

Fast by the river Tweed.--

Then cease your sport, Earl Percy said,

And take your bows with speed:

In the original, it is said, the huntsmen " blew a mort,"-an old term for the notes on the horn calling back the dogs after the death of the deer.

This the Editor believes to be a term for any slaughtered game; or here perhaps for the place in which they were stowed.

Teviotdale, one of the three divisions of Roxburghshire, the others being Liddesdale and Eskdale. The part of Northumberland adjoining the Cheviot had also three divisions,-Islandshire, from Holy Island, or Lindisfarn ;

And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yet,
In Scotland or in France,

That ever did on horseback come,
But, if my hap it were,

I durst encounter, man for man,
With him to break a spear.

Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of the company,

Whose armour shone like gold.

Shew me, said he, whose men ye be,
That hunt so boldly here;

That, without my consent, do chace
And kill my fallow-deer? *

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

Who said, We list + not to declare,
Nor shew whose men we be.

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

Norhamshire, from Norham town and castle; and Bamboroughshire, from Bamborough Castle. In the old ballad, v. 3.-" Then the Perse owt of Banborowe came."-" The country of the Scotch warriors described in these two last verses, has a fine romantic situation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verse."-ADDISON.

* There are no deer now in the Cheviot, and the wood is almost entirely destroyed; but it formerly abounded with both. Dr. Percy has transcribed a passage from Leland, who wrote at the beginning of the sixteenth century. "In Northumberland, as I heare say, be no forests, except Chivet Hills, where is much brusshe wood, and some okke (oak); grownde overgrowne with linge, and some with mosse. I have harde say that Chivet Hills stretcheth XX miles. There is great plente of redde-deer and roo bukkes." ↑ Choose.

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, said Witherington,

And I a 'squire alone:

* Mr. Addison speaks of this as a sentiment suitable to a hero. It does indeed shew a bright glimmering of virtuous and Christian charity. It is a pity that personal disputes of ambitious and selfish leaders, like Charles XII. or Napoleon Buonaparte, could not always thus be settled (if there must be bloodshed) by themselves alone. We should not then have

" Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi."

Of which, the reader, if he is content to smile at it, may take the following doggrel translation:

Whate'er mad antic foolish kings commit,

Their luckless subjects always pay for it.

"We meet with the same heroic sentiments in Virgil.-See Eneid, xii. 229."--ADDISON.

I'll do the best that do I may,
While I have power 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 fourscore Scots they slew.

To drive the deer with hound and horn,
Earl Douglas had the bent: *
A Captain, moved with mickle pride,
The spears to shivers sent.

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

O Christ! 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 wild, they laid on load,
And made a cruel fight.

* This, in the old ballad, is the beginning of the second fytte, or fit, an old term for the division of a song. These two lines, as they stand here alone, are absolute nonsense. Dr. Percy has admirably elucidated the mistake of the more modern composer, who took the word bent to mean disposition of mind; whereas, in the old copy, it is

"Yet bides the Earl Doglas upon the bent ;"

i. e. grass, or field. "Still Earl Douglas keeps the field." The first line, " to drive the deer," &c. is particularly absurd, occurring, as it does, in the midst of the description of a fight. Dr. Percy has here added three stanzas of his own composition, modernised from the old ballad--Reliques, i. 279.

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.

Thy ransom I will freely give,
And thus 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:

Who never spoke more words than these:
Fight on, my merry men all;

For why? my life is at an end:
Lord Percy sees my fall. †

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!

*" Æneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand, in the midst of a parley.-Eneid, xii. 318."-ADDISON.

"Turnus did not die after so heroic a manner; though our poet seems to have his eye upon Turnus's speech, in the last verse.-Æn. xii. 936."ADDISON.

There is no mention of Percy made by Douglas, in the old ballad. With