Then stern the minstrel rose, and spake, And gazed upon the King,-- "Not now the golden cup I take, Nor more to thee I sing. Another day, a happier hour, Shall bring me here again: The cup shall stay in Guthrum's power, Till I demand it then."
The Harper turned and left the shed, Nor bent to Guthrum's crown; And one who marked his visage said It wore a ghastly frown. The Danes ne'er saw that Harper more, For soon as morning rose, Upon their camp King Alfred bore, And slew ten thousand foes.
[A modernized form of the old ballad of the "Hunting o' the Cheviot." Some circumstances of the battle of Olter-bourne (A.D. 1388) are woven into the ballad, and the affairs of the two events are confounded. The ballad preserved in the "Percy Reliques" is probably as old as 1574. The one following is not later than the time of Charles II]
God prosper long our noble king, Our lives and safeties all; A woful hunting once there did In Chevy-Chace befall.
To drive the deer with hound and horn Earl Piercy took his way; The child may rue that is unborn The hunting of that day.
The stout Earl of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods Three summer days to take,--
The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chace To kill and bear away. These tidings to Earl Douglas came, In Scotland where he lay;
Who sent Earl Piercy present word He would prevent his sport. The English earl, not fearing that, Did to the woods resort.
With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, All chosen men of might, Who knew full well in time of need To aim their shafts aright.
The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran To chase the fallow deer; On Monday they began to hunt, When daylight did appear;
And long before high noon they had A hundred fat bucks slain; Then, having dined, the drovers went To rouse the deer again.
The bowmen mustered on the hills, Well able to endure; And all their rear, with special care, That day was guarded sure.
The hounds ran swiftly through the woods The nimble deer to take, That with their cries the hills and dales An echo shrill did make.
Lord Piercy to the quarry went, To view the slaughtered deer; Quoth he, "Earl Douglas promised This day to meet me here;
"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:--