Level each harquebuss on row;

Draw, merry archers, draw the bow;

Up, bill-men, to the walls, and cry,

Dacre for England, win or die !"

XXX.

"Yet hear," quoth Howard, " calmly hear,

Nor deem my words the words of fear :
For who, in field or foray slack,

Saw the blanche lion e'er fall back?

But thus to risque our Border flower

In strife against a kingdom's power,

Ten thousand Scots 'gainst thousands three,

Certes, were desperate policy.

Nay, take the terms the Ladye made,

Ere conscious of the advancing aid:

Let Musgrave meet fierce Deloraine

In single fight, and if he gain,

He gains for us; but if he's crossed, 'Tis but a single warrior lost :

The rest, retreating as they came,

Avoid defeat, and death, and shame."

XXXI.

Ill could the haughty Dacre brook

His brother-warden's sage rebuke:

And yet his forward step he staid,

And slow and sullenly obeyed.

But ne'er again the Border side
Did these two lords in friendship ride;

And this slight discontent, men say,

Cost blood upon another day.

XXXII.

The pursuivant-at-arms again

Before the castle took his stand;

His trumpet called, with parleying strain,
The leaders of the Scottish band;
And he defied, in Musgrave's right,
Stout Deloraine to single fight;

A gauntlet at their feet he laid,

And thus the terms of fight he said :—

"If in the lists good Musgrave's sword
Vanquish the knight of Deloraine,
Your youthful chieftain, Branksome's lord,
Shall hostage for his clan remain :
If Deloraine foil good Musgrave,
The boy his liberty shall have.

Howe'er it falls, the English band,
Unharming Scots, by Scots unharmed,
In peaceful march, like men unarmed,
Shall straight retreat to Cumberland."

XXXIII.

Unconscious of the near relief,

The proffer pleased each Scottish chief,

Though much the Ladye sage gainsayed;

For though their hearts were brave and true, From Jedwood's recent sack they knew,

How tardy was the regent's aid:

And you may guess the noble Dame

Durst not the secret prescience own, Sprung from the art she might not name,

By which the coming help was known. Closed was the compact, and agreed, That lists should be inclosed with speed, Beneath the castle, on a lawn :

They fixed the morrow for the strife,
On foot, with Scottish axe and knife,

At the fourth hour from peep of dawn;
When Deloraine, from sickness freed,
Or else a champion in his stead,

Should for himself and chieftain stand,

Against stout Musgrave, hand to hand.

XXXIV.

I know right well, that, in their lay,

Full

many minstrels sing and say,

Such combat should be made on horse,

On foaming steed, in full career,

With brand to aid, when as the spear

Should shiver in the course :

But he, the jovial Harper, taught

Me, yet a youth, how it was fought,
In guise which now I say;

He knew each ordinance and clause

Of black Lord Archibald's battle laws,

In the old Douglas' day.

He brooked not, he, that scoffing tongue
Should tax his minstrelsy with wrong,

Or call his song untrue :

For this, when they the goblet plied,

And such rude taunt had chafed his pride,

The bard of Reull he slew.

On Teviot's side, in fight they stood,

And tuneful hands were stained with blood;

Where still the thorn's white branches wave, Memorial o'er his rival's grave.