"You shall byde here, good English lord,
My brother is a traiterous man.
"He is a traitor stout and stronge,
As I tell you in privitie:
For he hath tane liverance of the earle,[3]
Into England nowe to 'liver thee."
"Now nay, now nay, thou goodly lady,
The regent is a noble lord:
Ne for the gold in all England
The Douglas would not break his word."
"When the regent was a banisht man,
With me he did faire welcome find;
And whether weal or woe betide,
I still shall find him true and kind.
"Betweene England and Scotland it wold breake truce,
And friends againe they wold never bee,
If they shold 'liver a banisht erle
Was driven out of his own countrie."
"Alas! alas! my lord," she sayes,
"Nowe mickle is their traitorie;
Then lett my brother ryde his wayes,
And tell these English lords from thee,
"How that you cannot with him ryde,
Because you are in an ile of the sea,[4]
Then ere my brother come againe
To Edenborrow castle[5] Ile carry thee.
"To the Lord Hume I will thee bring,
He is well knowne a true Scots lord,
And he will lose both land and life,
Ere he with thee will break his word."
"Much is my woe," Lord Percy sayd,
"When I thinke on my own countrie,
When I thinke on the heavye happe
My friends have suffered there for mee.
"Much is my woe," Lord Percy sayd,
"And sore those wars my minde distresse;
Where many a widow lost her mate,
And many a child was fatherlesse.
"And now that I a banisht man
Shold bring such evil happe with mee,
To cause my faire and noble friends
To be suspect of treacherie
"This rives my heart with double woe;
And lever had I dye this day,