• Yield thee, Lord Percy, (Douglas said,) In faith I will thee bring Where thou shalt high advanced be Thy ransom I will freely give, And thus report of thee, • Thou art the most courageous knight 'That ever I did see.' No, Douglas, (quoth Earl Percy then,) With that there came an arrow keen, Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart, A deep and deadly blow: Who never spoke more words than these, Then leaving life, Earl Percy took O Christ! my very heart doth bleed, "For sure, a more renowned knight A knight amongst the Scots there was, Sir Hugh Montgomery was he call'd; And pass'd the English archers all, With such a vehement force and might He did his body gore, The spear went through the other side A large cloth-yard, and more. So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery The grey-goose-wing that was thereon This fight did last from break of day Till setting of the sun; For when they rung the evening bell, * With the Earl Percy there was slain Sir John of Ogerton, Sir Robert Ratcliffe, and Sir John, Sir James that bold baròn: And, with Sir George, and good Sir James, For Witherington needs must I wail, For when his legs were smitten off, * That is, says Percy,' the curfew bell, usually rung at eight o'clock.' But this ingenious conjecture happens, unfortunately, to be an egregious mistake. The evening bell' is the bell for vespers, or six o'clock prayers, as the learned commentator might have observed in transcribing or printing the original ballad, which expressly tells us, that When EVEN SONG BELL was rang, the battell was not half done.' That it was formerly looked upon as an uncommon, and, perhaps, irreligious circumstance, for a Christian army to continue engaged after the ringing of this bell, appears from a similar passage in the ancient Spanish romance of TIRANT LO BLANCH (Barcelona, 1497, folio); where it is said, "E continuant toste'ps la batailla era ia quasi hora de vespres," &c. (Capitol clvii.) "L'heure de Vêpres approchoit, et le combat duroit encore." (Traduc. Fran. i. 293.) And with Earl Douglas there was slain Sir Charles Currèl, that from the field Sir Charles Murrèl of Ratcliffe too, His sister's son was he; Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, Yet saved could not be. And the Lord Maxwell, in likewise, Of fifteen hundred Englishmen, The rest were slain in Chevy-chase, Next day did many widows come, Their husbands to bewail; They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies, bath'd in purple blood, They bore with them away; They kiss'd them dead a thousand times, * [It is hardly possible to read these pathetic stanzas, without reverting to the admirably-imagined representation of 'Chevy-chase the day after the battle,' by Mr. Bird; lately exhibited in the gallery of the British Institution, and now engraving in metzotinto by Mr. Young.] This news was brought to Edinburgh, O heavy news! (King James did say) • Scotland can witness be, 'I have not any captain more Of such account as he!' Like tidings to King Henry came, Within as short a space, 'Now God be with him! (said our king,) Sith 'twill no better be; 'I trust I have within my realm Five hundred as good as he! 'Yet shall not Scot nor Scotland say, 'But I will vengeance take; 'And be revenged on them all, For brave Lord Percy's sake.’ This vow full well the king perform'd, In one day, fifty knights were slain, And of the rest of small account, Did many hundreds die. Thus ended the hunting of Chevy-chase, |