—Whasa liks, thai may her
Young women, when thai will play,
Syng it among thaim ilk day.—
The Bruce, Book XVI.
Godscroft also, in his History of the House of Douglas, written in the reign of James VI., alludes more than once to the ballads current upon the border, in which the exploits of those heroes were celebrated. Such is the passage, relating to the death of William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale, slain by the Earl of Douglas, his kinsman, his godson, and his chief[[61]]. Similar strains of lamentation were poured by the [cxxv] border poets over the tomb of the Hero of Otterbourne; and over the unfortunate youths, who were dragged to an ignominious death, from the very table at which they partook of the hospitality of their sovereign. The only stanza, preserved of this last ballad, is uncommonly animated—
Edinburgh castle, towne and toure,
God grant thou sink for sinne!
And that even for the black dinoure,
Erl Douglas gat therein.