Tales of the Olden Time "Instead of dancers to dance, mither, Turn four-and-twenty well-wight men, Then, sighing, said the Queen to hersell, But she applied to an auld woman, Instead o' dancers to dance a dance, Were four-and-twenty well-wight men Her seven sons in seven swans, This flock o' birds took flight and flew Beyond the raging sea; They landed near the Earl Mar's castle, Took shelter in every tree. They were a flock o' pretty birds, The weddin'eers they looked at them These birds flew up frae bush and tree, And, lighted on the ha'; And, when the wedding-train cam' forth, The storks they seized the boldest men, They flew around the bride-maidens, And, wi' the twinkling o' an ee, The bride and they were fled. There's ancient men at weddings been For naething could the company do, That took their bride away. OLD BALLAD. Tales of the Olden Time Tales of the Olden Time Chevy-Chace God prosper long our noble king, Our lives and safeties all; A woful hunting once there did To drive the deer with hound and horn The child may rue that is unborn The stout Earl of Northumberland The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chace These tidings to Earl Douglas came, Who sent Earl Percy present word With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, Who knew full well in time of need The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran To chase the fallow deer; On Monday they began to hunt And long before high noon they had A hundred fat bucks slain; Then having dined, the drovers went The bowmen mustered on the hills, Well able to endure; And all their rear, with special care, The hounds ran swiftly through the woods, That with their cries the hills and dales Lord Percy to the quarry went, "But if I thought he would not come, No longer would I stay;" With that a brave young gentleman Thus to the Earl did say: Tales of the Olden Time Tales of the Olden Time "Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, All marching in our sight; "All men of pleasant Teviotdale, Fast by the river Tweed;" "Then cease your sports," Earl Percy said, "And take your bows with speed; "And now with me, my countrymen, 66 That ever did on horseback come, I durst encounter man for man, Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed, Whose armor shone like gold. "Show me," said he, "whose men you be, That hunt so boldly here, That, without my consent, do chase And kill my fallow-deer." |