Ah! freedom is a noble thing! Freedom makes man to have liking! Freedom all solace to man gives: He lives at ease that freely lives! A noble heart may have none ease, Nor nought else that may him please, If freedom fail; for free liking Is yearned o'er all other thing. Nay, he that aye has lived free, May not know well the property, The anger, nor the wretched doom, That is coupled to foul thirldom. But if he had assayed it, Then all perquier[1] he should it wit: And should think freedom more to prize Than all the gold in world that is.
And when the king wist that they were In hale[1] battle, coming so near, His battle gart[2] he well array. He rode upon a little palfrey, Laughed and jolly, arrayand His battle, with an axe in hand. And on his bassinet he bare A hat of tyre above aye where; And, thereupon, into tok'ning, An high crown, that he was king. And when Gloster and Hereford were With their battle approaching near, Before them all there came ridand, With helm on head and spear in hand, Sir Henry the Bohun, the worthy, That was a wight knight, and a hardy, And to the Earl of Hereford cousin; Armed in armis good and fine; Came on a steed a bowshot near, Before all other that there were: And knew the king, for that he saw Him so range his men on raw,[3] And by the crown that was set Also upon his bassinet. And toward him he went in hy.[4] And the king so apertly[5] Saw him come, forouth[6] all his feres,[7] In hy till him the horse he steers. And when Sir Henry saw the king Come on, forouten[8] abasing, To him he rode in full great hy. He thought that he should well lightly Win him, and have him at his will, Since he him horsed saw so ill. Sprent they samen into a lyng;[9] Sir Henry miss'd the noble king; And he that in his stirrups stood, With the axe, that was hard and good, With so great main, raucht[10] him a dint, That neither hat nor helm might stint The heavy dush that he him gave, The head near to the harns[11] he clave. The hand-axe shaft frushit[12] in two; And he down to the yird[13] 'gan go All flatlings, for him failed might. This was the first stroke of the fight, That was performed doughtily. And when the king's men so stoutly Saw him, right at the first meeting, Forouten doubt or abasing, Have slain a knight so at a straik, Such hardment thereat 'gan they take, That they come on right hardily. When Englishmen saw them so stoutly Come on, they had great abasing; And specially for that the king So smartly that good knight has slain, That they withdrew them everilk ane, And durst not one abide to fight: So dread they for the king his might. When that the king repaired was, That gart his men all leave the chase, The lordis of his company Blamed him, as they durst, greatumly, That be him put in aventure, To meet so stith[14] a knight, and stour, In such point as he then was seen. For they said, well it might have been Cause of their tynsal[15] everilk ane. The king answer has made them nane, But mainit[16] his hand-axe shaft so Was with the stroke broken in two.