"We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a' the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men on horse and foot,
Cam' wi' the keen Lord Scroope along."
But still they held aloof, hesitating to attack the retreating little Scottish band, and Buccleuch and his men, with Willie in their midst, plunged in and safely recrossed the swollen river.
"He turned him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he—
'If ye likena my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!'"
But Lord Scrope on this night scarcely merited the term, "keen"; he went no farther towards Scotland than the water's edge.