Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Volume I Part 12

They rade their horse, they ran their horse, Then hovered on the lee; "We be three lads o' fair Scotland, "That fain wad fighting see."

This boasting, when young Edward heard.

An angry man was he!

"I'll take yon lad, I'll bind yon lad, "And bring him bound to thee!"

"Now, G.o.d forbid," King Edward said, "That ever thou suld try!

"Three worthy leaders we hae lost, "And thou the fourth wad lie.

"If thou should'st hang on yon draw-brigg, "Blythe wad I never be!"

But, wi' the poll-axe in his hand, Upon the brigg sprang he.

The first stroke that young Edward gae, He struck wi' might and mayn; He clove the Maitlan's helmet stout, And bit right nigh the brayn.

When Maitland saw his ain blood fa', An angry man was he!

He let his weapon frae him fa', And at his throat did flee.

And thrice about he did him swing, Till on the grund he light, Where he has halden young Edward, Tho' he was great in might.

"Now, let him up," King Edward cried, "And let him come to me!

"And, for the deed that thou hast done, "Thou shalt hae erldomes three!"

"Its ne'er be said in France, nor e'er In Scotland, when I'm hame, That Edward once lay under me, And e'er gat up again!"

He pierced him through and through the heart; He maul'd him cruellie; Then hung him ower the draw-brigg, Beside the other three.

"Now, take frae me that feather-bed!

"Mak me a bed o' strae!

"I wish I had na lived this day, "To mak my heart sae wae.

"If I were ance at London tower, "Where I was wont to be, "I never mair suld gang frae hame, "Till borne on a bier-tree."

[Footnote 90: _Waled_--Chosen.]

[Footnote 91: North-Berwick, according to some reciters.]

[Footnote 92: Edward had quartered the arms of Scotland with his own.]

[Footnote 93: The two first lines are modern, to supply an imperfect stanza.]

NOTES ON AULD MAITLAND.

_Young Edward hight his name_.--P, 25. v. 2.

Were it possible to find an authority for calling this personage _Edmund_, we should be a step nearer history; for a brother, though not a nephew of Edward I., so named, died in Gascony during an unsuccessful campaign against the French.--_Knighton_, Lib. III. cap.

8.

_I wish him dool and pyne_.--P. 26. v. 3.

Thus, Spenser, in _Mother Huberd's tale_--

Thus is this ape become a shepherd swain, And the false fox his dog, G.o.d give them pain!

_Who, marching forth with false Dunbar, A ready welcome found_.--P. 26. v. 4.

These two lines are modern, and inserted to complete the verse.

Dunbar, the fortress of Patrick, Earl of March, was too often opened to the English, by the treachery of that baron, during the reign of Edward I.

_They laid their sowies to the wall_, _Wi' many a heavy peal_.--P. 27. v. 4.

In this and the following verse, the attack and defence of a fortress, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, is described accurately and concisely. The sow was a military engine, resembling the Roman _testudo_. It was framed of wood, covered with hides, and mounted on wheels, so that, being rolled forwards to the foot of the besieged wall, it served as a shed, or cover, to defend the miners, or those who wrought the battering ram, from the stones and arrows of the garrison. In the course of the famous defence, made by Black Agnes, Countess of March, of her husband's castle of Dunbar, Montague, Earl of Salisbury, who commanded the besiegers, caused one of these engines to be wheeled up to the wall. The countess, who, with her damsels, kept her station on the battlements, and affected to wipe off with her handkerchief the dust raised by the stones, hurled from the English machines, awaited the approach of this new engine of a.s.sault. "Beware, Montague," she exclaimed, while the fragment of a rock was discharged from the wall--"Beware, Montague! for farrow shall thy sow!"[94] Their cover being dashed to pieces, the a.s.sailants, with great loss and difficulty, scrambled back to their trenches. "By the regard of suche a ladye," would Froissart have said, "and by her comforting, a man ought to be worth two men, at need." The sow was called by the French _Truie_.--See _Hailes' Annals_, Vol. II. p. 89. _Wintown's Cronykil_, Book VIII. _William of Malmesbury_, Lib. IV.

The memory of the _sow_ is preserved in Scotland by two trifling circ.u.mstances. The name given to an oblong hay-stack, is a _hay-sow_; and this may give us a good idea of the form of the machine. Children also play at a game with cherry stones, placing a small heap on the ground, which they term a _sowie_, endeavouring to hit it, by throwing single cherry-stones, as the sow was formerly battered from the walls of the besieged fortress. My companions, at the High School of Edinburgh, will remember what was meant by _berrying a sowie_. It is strange to find traces of military antiquities in the occupation of the husbandman, and the sports of children.

[Footnote 94: This sort of bravade seems to have been fas.h.i.+onable in those times: "Et avec drapeaux, et leurs chaperons, ils torchoient les murs a l'endroit, ou les pierres venoient frapper."--_Notice des Ma.n.u.scrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale_.]

The pitch and tar-barrels of Maitland were intended to consume the formidable machines of the English. Thus, at a fabulous siege of York, by Sir William Wallace, the same mode of defence is adopted:

The Englishmen, that cruel were and kene, Keeped their town, and fended there full fast; f.a.ggots of fire among the host they cast, Up _pitch and tar_ on feil _sowis_ they lent; Many were hurt ere they from the walls went; _Stones on Springalds they did cast out so fast, And goads of iron made many grome agast_.

Henry the Minstrel's History of Wallace.--B. 8. c. 5.

A more authentic ill.u.s.tration may be derived from Barbour's Account of the Siege of Berwick, by Edward II., in 1319, when a _sow_ was brought on to the attack by the English, and burned by the combustibles hurled down upon it, through the device of John Crab, a Flemish engineer, in the Scottish service.

And thai, that at the sege lay, Or it was pa.s.syt the fyft day, Had made thaim syndry apparall, To gang eft sonys till a.s.saill.

Off gret gests a _sow_ thai maid, That stalwart heildyne aboyne it haid; With armyt men inew tharin, And instruments for to myne.

Syndry scaffalds thai maid withall, That war wele heyar than the wall, And ordanyt als that, be the se, The town suld weill a.s.saillyt be.

Thai within, that saw thaim swa, Swa gret apparaill schap to ma, Throw Craby's cunsaill, that wes sley, A crane thai haiff gert dress up hey, Rynnand on quheills, that thai micht bryng It quhar that nede war off helping.

And pyk, and ter, als haiff thai tane; And lynt, and herds, and brymstane; And dry treyis that wele wald brin, And mellyt aythir other in: And gret f.a.galds thairoff thai maid, Gyrdyt with irne bands braid.

The f.a.galds weill mycht mesuryt be, Till a gret towrys quant.i.te.

The f.a.galds bryning in a ball, With thair cran thoucht till awaill; And giff the sow come to the wall, To lat it brynand on her fall; And with stark chenyeis hald it thar, Quhill all war brynt up that thar war.

Upon sic maner gan thai fycht, Quhill it wes ner none off the day, That thai without, on gret aray, Pryssyt thair _sow_ towart the wall; And thai within sune gert call The engynour, that takyn was, And gret manance till hym mais, And swour that he suld dey, bot he Prowyt on the sow sic sutelte That he to fruschyt ilk dele, And he, that hath persawyt wele That the dede wes wele ner hym till, Bot giff he mycht fulfil thair will Thoucht that he at hys mycht wald do.

Bendyt in gret by then wes sche, That till the sow wes ewyn set.

In hy he gert draw the cleket; And smertly swappyt owt a stane, Ewyn our the sow the stane is gane, And behind it a litill way It fell: and then they cryt, "Hey!"

That war in hyr, "furth to the wall, For dredles it is ours all!"

The gynour than deleuerly Gert bend the gyn in full gret hy; And the stane smertly swappyt out.