Loe, yonder doth Erle Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;50
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres
All marching in our sight;
All men of pleasant Tivydale,
Fast by the river Tweede:
O cease your sports, Erle Percy said,55
And take your bowes with speede;
And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yett,
In Scotland or in France,60
That ever did on horsebacke come,
But if my hap[902] it were,
I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spere.
Erle Douglas on his milke-white steede,65
Most like a baron bold,
Rode formost of his company,
Whose armour shone like gold.
Show me, sayd hee, whose men you bee,
That hunt soe boldly heere,70
That, without my consent, doe chase
And kill my fallow-deere.
The first man that did answer make,
Was noble Percy hee;
Who sayd, Wee list not to declare,75
Nor shew whose men wee bee:
Yet wee will spend our deerest blood,
Thy cheefest harts to slay.
Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe,
And thus in rage did say,80
Ere thus I will out-braved bee,
One of us two shall dye:
I know thee well, an erle thou art;
Lord Percy, soe am I.
But trust me, Percy, pittye it were,85
And great offence to kill
Any of these our guiltlesse men,
For they have done no ill.