"Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;50
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears,
All marching in our sight.
"All men of pleasant Tividale,
Fast by the river Tweed:"
"Then cease your sport," Erle Piercy said,55
"And take your bows with speed.
"And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yet
In Scotland or in France,60
"That ever did on horseback come,
But, [if] my hap it were,
I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spear."
Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,65
Most like a baron bold,
Rode foremost of the company,
Whose armour shone like gold.
"Show me," he said, "whose men you be,
That hunt so boldly here,70
That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow-deer."
The man that first did answer make
Was noble Piercy he;
Who said, "We list not to declare,75
Nor show whose men we be.
"Yet we will spend our dearest blood,
Thy chiefest hart to slay;"
Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,