Then, having dined, the drovers went 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 And with their cries the hills and dales Lord Percy to the quarry went, t If that I thought he would not come, Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come, 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, That ever did on horseback come, I durst encounter, man for man, Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold. Shew me, said he, whose men ye be, That, without my consent, do chace The man that first did answer make, Who said, We list + not to declare, Yet will we spend our dearest blood, 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, Ere thus I will out-braved be, I know thee well; an Earl thou art, But trust me, Percy, pity it were, And great offence to kill Let thou and I the battle try, Then stepped a gallant 'Squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told That e'er my Captain fought on foot, 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, Our English archers bent their bows, To drive the deer with hound and horn, They closed full fast on every side, O Christ! it was a grief to see, The cries of men lying in their gore, At last these two stout Earls did meet, * 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, Yield thee, Lord Percy, Douglas said, By James our Scottish King. Thy ransom I will freely give, Thou art the most courageous knight 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, Who never spoke more words than these: For why? my life is at an end: Then leaving life, Earl Percy took 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 |