The Gordons good, in English blood
They steep'd their hose and shoon;
The Lindsays flew like fire about,115
Till all the fray was done.
The Percy and Montgomery met,
That either of other were fain;
They swapped swords, and they twa swat,
And aye the blood ran down between.120
"Now yield thee, 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,125
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;130
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 struck his sword's point in the gronde;
The Montgomery was a courteous knight,135
And quickly took him by the honde.
This deed was done at the Otterbourne,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken bush,
[And the Percy led captive away.]140
[6]. "Light" is the appropriated designation of the Lindsays, as "gay" is that of the Gordons.
[7]. The Jardines were a clan of hardy West-Border men. Their chief was Jardine of Applegirth. Their refusal to ride with Douglas was, probably, the result of one of those perpetual feuds, which usually rent to pieces a Scottish army.—S.