"Faire words," quoth he, "they make fooles faine, And that by thee and thy lord is seen; You may hap to thinke itt soone enough, 195 Ere you that shooting reach, I ween."
Jamye his hatt pulled over his browe, He thought his lord then was betray'd; And he is to Erle Percy againe, To tell him what the Douglas sayd. 200
"Hold upp thy head, man," quoth his lord, "Nor therefore lett thy courage fayle; He did it but to prove thy heart, To see if he cold make it quail."
When they had other fifty sayld, 205 Other fifty mile upon the sea, Lord Percy called to Douglas himselfe, Sayd, "What wilt thou nowe doe with mee?"
"Looke that your brydle be wight, my lord, And your horse goe swift as shipp att sea; 210 Looke that your spurres be bright and sharpe, That you may pricke her while shee'll away."
"What needeth this, Douglas?" he sayth; "What needest thou to flyte with mee? For I was counted a horseman good 215 Before that ever I mett with thee.
"A false Hector hath my horse, Who dealt with mee so treacherouslìe; A false Armstrong hath my spurres, And all the geere belongs to mee." 220
When they had sayled other fifty mile, Other fifty mile upon the sea, They landed low by Berwicke side, A deputed laird landed Lord Percye.[L224]
Then he at Yorke was doomde to die, 225 It was, alas! a sorrowful sight; Thus they betrayed that noble earle, Who ever was a gallant wight.
59. Of the Earl of Morton, the Regent.--P.
78. i. e. Lake of Leven, which hath communication with the sea. Edinburgh was at that time in the hands of the opposite faction.--P.
119. The Lord Warden of the East Marches.--P.
224. fol. MS. reads _land_, and has not the following stanza.
From _Reliques of English Poetry_, ii. 217.
"This ballad is a proof of the little intercourse that subsisted between the Scots and English, before the accession of James I. to the crown of England. The tale which is here so circumstantially related, does not appear to have had the least foundation in history, but was probably built upon some confused hearsay report of the tumults in Scotland during the minority of that prince, and of the conspiracies formed by different factions to get possession of his person. It should seem from ver. 97 to have been written during the regency, or at least before the death, of the Earl of Morton, who was condemned and executed June 2, 1581; when James was in his fifteenth year.