“Yield thee, now yield thee, Percy,” he said,
“Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low!”
“To whom must I yield,” quoth Earl Percy,
“Now that I see it must be so?”
“Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee!”
“I will not yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I yield to a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh the Montgomery, if he were here.”
As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword’s point in the gronde;
The Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And quickly took him by the honde.
This deed was done at Otterbourne,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken bush,
And the Percy led captive away.
TAM LIN
(Child, Part II., p. 340, Burns’s Version.)
O I forbid you, maidens a’,
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.
There’s nane that gaes by Carterhaugh
But they leave him a wad,
Either their rings, or green mantles,
Or else their maidenhead.
Janet has kilted her green kirtle
A little aboon her knee,
And she has braided her yellow hair
A little aboon her bree,
And she’s awa’ to Carterhaugh,
As fast as she can hie.