And straight in heart did vow revenge Upon the Lord Percy. Sir Hugh Montgomery was he called, And past the English archers all With such a vehement force and might The staff ran through the other side So thus did both those Nobles die, He had a good bow in his hand Against Sir Hugh Montgomery This fight from break of day did last Till setting of the sun, For when they rung the Evening bell With stout Earl Percy there was slain Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William, And with Sir George and with Sir James, Both Knights of good account; And good Sir Ralph Rabby there was slain Whose prowess did surmount. For Witherington needs must I wail And with Earl Douglas there was slain And Sir Charles Murray that from field Sir Roger Hever of Harcliffe, too, Sir David Lamb so well esteemed, But saved he could not be; And the Lord Maxwell in like case Of fifteen hundred Englishmen Went home but fifty-three; The rest in Chevy Chase were slain, Next day did many widows come Their husbands to bewail; They washed their wounds in brinish tears, But all would not prevail. Their bodies, bathed in purple blood, They bore with them away, They kissed them dead a thousand times Ere they were clad in clay. The news was brought to Edinborough "O heavy news!" King James can say I have not any Captain more Like tidings to King Henry came Was slain in Chevy Chase. "Now God be with him!" said our king, "Sith it will no better be, I trust I have within my realm Five hundred as good as he! "Yet shall not Scots nor Scotland say But I will vengeance take, And be revenged on them all This vow the king did well perform In one day fifty knights were slain, And of the rest, of small account, Thus endeth the hunting in Chevy Chase God save our King, and bless this land And grant henceforth that foul debate 'Twixt noble men may cease! ANONYMOUS. Old Ballad. SIR PATRICK SPENS.1 THE king sits in Dunfermline town, 1 This is an old Scotch ballad of great antiquity. There is no historical incident which corresponds exactly to that narrated in the ballad, but the story belongs to the period of Alexander the Third, of Scotland, who died in 1285, and whose daughter married Eric, King of Norway. The daughter of Eric by this mar riage, who was named Margaret and called the maid of Norway, became the heiress of the Scottish crown, and an effort was 0 up and spake an eldern knight, Sat at the king's right knee: "Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor Our king has written a braid letter, "To Noroway, to Noroway, To Noroway o'er the faem; The first word that Sir Patrick read, The neist word that Sir Patrick read, "O wha is this has done this deed, To send us out at this time of the year, "Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet, The king's daughter of Noroway, 'Tis we must fetch her hame." made to marry her to Edward, son of Edward I. of England; but she died before her return to Scotland. She is the princess referred to in the ballad, and for whom Sir Patrick Spens was sent, according to the tradition. The version given here is Saken from Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. i., p. 3. |