In the mauger of doughte Dogles,
And all that ever with him be.'
PERCY: Reliques of Ancient Poetry.
SCARCELY less famous than Robin Hood as a subject for ballad makers was the battle of Chevy Chase. This battle was one of the many struggles rising out of the never-ending border quarrels between Scotland and England, of which poets are never tired of singing. Sometimes the Earl of Douglas, the great Scotch border-lord, would make an incursion into Northumberland, and then to revenge the insult Lord Percy would come riding over the Tweed into Scotland.
In the battle of Chevy Chase it would seem as if Earl Percy was the aggressor. As a matter of fact it mattered little which began the quarrel at any particular time. The feud was ever smouldering, and needed little to make it burst forth.
THE BALLAD OF CHEVY CHASE.
God prosper Long our noble king,
Our lives and safetyes all;
A woefull hunting once there did
In Chevy Chase befall.
To drive the deer with hound and horne,
Erle Percy took his way,
The child may rue that is unborne
The hunting of that day.
The stout Erle of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take;
The cheefest harts in Chevy Chase
To kill and bear away.
These tidings to Erle Douglas came,
In Scotland where he lay,
Who sent Erle Percy present word
He would prevent his sport.
The English Erle not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,
With fifteen hundred bowmen bold;
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well in time of neede
To ayme their shafts aright.
The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran
To chase the fallow deere:
On Monday they began to hunt
Ere daylight did appear;
And long before high noon they had
An hundred fat buckes slaine;
Then having dined the drovyers went
To rouse the deer again.
The bowmen mustered on the hill,
Well able to endure;
Their backsides all, with special care,
That day were guarded sure.
The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,
The nimble deere to take,
That with their cryes the hills and dales
An eccho shrill did make.
Lord Percy to the quarry went,
To view the slaughtered deer;
Quoth he, Erle Douglas promised
This day to meet me heere;
But if I thought he would not come,
Noe longer would I stay.
With that a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Erle did say:-
Loe, yonder doth Erle Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres
All marching in our sight;
All men of pleasant Tivydale,
Fast by the river Tweede:
O cease your sports, Erle Percy said,
And take your bowes with speede.
And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yett
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 spere.
Erle Douglas on his milk-white steede,
Most like a baron bold,
Rode foremost of his company,
Whose armour shone like gold.
Show me, sayd he, whose men you be,
That hunt so boldly heere,
That without my consent doe chase
And kill my fallow deere.
The first man that did answer make
Was noble Percy he;
Who sayd, We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be.
Yet we will spend our deerest blood,
Thy cheefest harts to slay.
The Douglas swore a solempne oathe,
And thus in rage did say,
Ere thus I will outbraved be,
One of us two shall dye:
I know thee well an erle thou art;
Lord Percy, soe am I.
But trust me, Percy, pittye it were
And great offence to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,
For they have done no ill.
Let thou and I the battell trye,
