104. on a.
121. me wanting.
202. I heard them in yon inn.
211. you.
322. ane by ane.
158
HUGH SPENCER’S FEATS IN FRANCE
A. ‘Hugh Spencer,’ Percy MS., p. 281; Hales and Furnivall, II, 290.
B. ‘Hugh Spencer,’ Percy Papers, communicated by the Duchess Dowager of Portland.
C. Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 4.
The king of England, A, B, sends Hugh Spencer as ambassador to France, to know whether there is to be peace or war between the two lands. Spencer takes with him a hundred men-at-arms, A; twenty ships, B. The French king, Charles, A 30, declares for war, A, C; says that the last time peace was broken it was not along of him, B. The queen, Maude, B 9, is indignant that the king should parley with traitors, A, with English shepherds, B. She proposes to Spencer a joust with one of her knights. The Englishman has no jousting-horse. Three horses are brought out for him, all of which he rejects, A, B; in C, two. In A he calls for his old hack which he had brought over sea; in B, C, he accepts a fourth [third], a fiery-eyed black. Spencer breaks his spear, a French shaft, upon his antagonist; three spears [two] are tied together to make something strong enough for him to wield. He unhorses the Frenchman, then rides through the French camp and kills some thirteen or fourteen score of King Charles’s men, A. The king says he will have his head, A, with some provocation certainly; the queen says as much in B, though Spencer has only killed her champion in fair fight. Spencer has but four true brethren left, A 33; we are not told what had become of the rest of his hundred. With these, or, in B, with two, he makes a stand against the royal guard, and kills scores of them. The French king begs him to hold his hand, A 34, B 35. There shall never be war with England while peace may be kept, A; he shall take back with him all the ships he brought, B.[[150]]