nswer me, now I do call.'

12.
'King Henry the Eighth my uncle was;
Some pity show for his sweet sake!
Ah, Lord Bodwell, I know thee well;
Some pity on me I pray thee take!'

13.
'I'll pity thee as much,' he said,
'And as much favour I'll show to thee,
As thou had on the queen's chamberlain
That day thou deemedst him to die.'

14.
Through halls and towers this king they led,
Through castles and towers that were high,
Through an arbour into an orchard,
And there hanged him in a pear tree.

15.
When the governor of Scotland he heard tell
That the worthy king he was slain,
He hath banished the queen so bitterly
That in Scotland she dare not remain.

16.
But she is fled into merry England,
And Scotland too aside hath lain,
And through the Queen of England's good grace
Now in England she doth remain.

[Annotations:
1.2: 'sleight,' trick.
3.3,4: A popular proverb; see _The Lord of Learne_, 39.3,4 (Second
Series, p. 190).
10.1: 'made him boun,' prepared himself.]

DURHAM FIELD

+The Text+ is another of the lively battle-pieces from the Percy Folio,
put into modern spelling, and no other version is known or needed. The
battle of Durham, which the minstrel says (27.1, 64.2) was fought on a
morning of May, and (64.3,4) within a month of Crecy and Poictiers,[1]
actually took place on October 17, 1346. Stanza 18 makes the king say to
Lord Hamilton that they are of 'kin full nigh'; and this provides an
upper limit for the date of the ballad, as James Hamilton was married to
Princess Mary, sister of James III., in 1474.

[Footnote 1: Crecy was fought on August 26, 1346; Poictiers on
September 19, 1356.]

+The Story.+--We have as authorities for the history of the battle both
Scottish and English chronicles, but the ballad, as might be expected,
follows neither very closely. Indeed it is not easy to reconcile the
Scottish account with the English. David Bruce, the young king of
Scotland, seized the opportunity afforded by Edward III.'s absence in
France at the siege of Calais to invade England with a large army. They
were met at Durham by an English force in three divisions, led
(according to the English chronicle) by (i) the Earl of Angus, Henry
Percy, Ralph Neville, and Henry Scrope, (ii) the Archbishop of York, and
(iii) Mowbray, Rokeby, and John of Copland. The Scots were also in three
divisions, which wer