The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,
The nimble deer to take,
That with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.
Lord Percy to the quarry went,
To view the slaughter'd deer;
Quoth he, Earl Douglas promisèd
This day to meet me here:
But if I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay.
With that, a brave young gentleman
Thus to the earl did say:
Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight;
All men of pleasant Teviotdale,
Fast by the river Tweed:
O cease your sport, Earl Percy said,
And take your bows with speed:
And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For never was there champion yet
In Scotland or in France,
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,
Most like a baron bold,
Rode foremost of his company,
Whose armour shone like gold.
Show me, said he, whose men you be,
That hunt so boldly here,
That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow-deer?
The man that first did answer make,
Was noble Percy he;
Who said, We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be: