‘The Baron of Graystoke is out of the west
With a noble companye:
All they lodge at your father’s this night,
And the battel fayn would they see.’
XXXVIII
‘For Jesus’ love,’ sayd Sir Harry Percy,
‘That died for you and me,
Wend to my lord my father agayn,
Say thou saw me not with thee.
XXXIX
‘My troth is plight to yon Scottish knight,
—It nede’s me not to layne—
That I should bide him upon this bent,
And I have his troth agayn.
XL
‘And if that I wend off this growende[1065],
Forsooth, unfoughten away,
He would call me but a coward knight
In his land another day.
XLI
‘Yet had I liefer be rynde[1066] and rent,
—By Mary, that mickle may[1067]!—
Than ever my manhood be reproved
With a Scot another day.