Page:Hunting of Chevy-chase (4).pdf/3

 With twenty hundred bowmen bold, All chosen men of might- Who knew full well in time of need To aim their shafts aright.

The gallant grey-hounds swiftly ran, To chase the fallow deer, On Monday they began to hunt, When day-light did appear;

And long before high noon they had An hundred fat bucks slain. Then having dined, the rovers went To rouse them up again,

Earl Percy to the quarry went To view the fallow deer, Quoth he, Earl Douglas promised This day to meet me here;

But if I thought he would not come, No longer would I stay. With that a brave young gentleman, Thus to the Earl did say-

Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come, His men in armour bright; Full fifteen hundred Scottish spears, All marching in our sight;

All pleasant men of Teviotdale, Dwell on the river Tweed. Then cease your sport, Earl Percy said, And take your arms with speed,

And now with me my countrymen, Your courage to advance; For there was ne'er a champion yet, In Scotland or in France,

That ever did on horseback come, But if mayhap it were, I durst encounter man for man, With him to break a spear.