ers to King Henry,
but he wished Henry to ransom his brother-in-law Mortimer.

_K. Henry_. But sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you.--My lord Northumberland,
We licence your departure with your son.--
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

(_Exeunt_ K. Henry, Blunt, _and train_)

_Hotspur_. And if the devil come and roar for them
I will not send them:--I will after, straight,
And tell him so.

* * * * *

_Worcester_. These same noble Scots
That are your prisoners--

_Hotspur_. I'll keep them all;
By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them;
No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not;
I'll keep them, by this hand.

_Worcester_. You start away,
And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those prisoners you shall keep.--

_Hotspur_. Nay, I will, that's flat:--
He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll holla "Mortimer!"
Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but "Mortimer," and give it him
To keep his anger still in motion.

_The First Part of_ KING HENRY IV., _Act I., Scene 3_.

The fight at Homildon Hill took place on a Monday in August, 1402, and
the memory of it is kept alive by the name of the "Monday Clough" near
Wooler, where the archers commenced the fight.

More than a hundred years after this, the last, and in many respects the
greatest, battle ever fought on Northumbrian soil took place at Flodden.
King James IV. of Scotland had several grievances against England, which
had rankled in his mind for some time; he had not yet received the full
amount of the dowry which had been promised with his wife, Margaret
Tudor, sister of Henry VIII., although they had been married for many
years; a Scottish noble, Sir Robert Ker, had been killed in
Northumberland, and the slayer could not be found to be brought to
justice--he was outlawed, but that seemed to King James very
insufficient; a Border raid on a large scale, led by Lord Hume, had met
with disastrous defeat on Milfield Plain at the hands of Sir William
Bulmer; and Andrew Barton, a notable sea-captain, whom James was looking
forward to seeing as one of the best leaders of his new navy, had been
killed in a sea