To drive the deer with hound and horn, The child may rue that is unborn The stout Earl of Northumberland The chiefest harts in Chevy Chase These tidings to Earl Douglas came, Who sent Earl Percy present word, With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, Who knew full well in time of need The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran, And long before high noon they had The bowmen muster'd on the hills, Their bodies all, with special care, Their hounds ran swiftly through the woods, The nimble deer to take, That with their cries the hills and dales Lord Percy to the quarry went, EARL DOUGLAS HUNTING IN CHEVY CHASE. 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 ; 66 Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, His men in armour bright; Full twenty hundred Scottish spears, All marching in our sight; All men of pleasant Tivydale, 66 Fast by the river Tweed." Ho, cease your sports," Earl Percy said, 66 And take your bows with speed. And now with me, my countrymen, That ever did on horseback come, I durst encounter man for man, Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed, Rode foremost of his company, 5 66 Show me," said he, "whose men you be, That hunt so boldly here, That, without my consent, do chase The first man that did answer make, Who said, "We list not to declare, Yet we will spend our dearest blood, 66 Ere thus I will outbravèd be, I know thee well-an earl thou art, But trust me, Percy, pity it were, |