Wi fire and sword we’ll follow thee,
Or, gif your courtrie lords fa back,
Our borderers sall the onset gie.’
Then out and spak the nobil king,
And round him cast a wilie ee:
‘Now haud thy tongue, Sir Walter Scott,
Nor speik of reif nor felonie,
For had everye honeste man his awin kye,
A right puir clan thy name wad be.’[107]
B represents that the king, after appointing a meeting with the Outlaw ‘in number not above two or three,’ comes with a company of three hundred, which violation of the mutual understanding naturally leads the Outlaw to expect treachery. The king, however, not only proceeds in good faith, but, without any stipulations, at once makes the Outlaw laird of the Forest.