"A boon, a boon," said the curtal friar, "The like I gave to thee;

Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth, And to whute whuës three."

"That will I do," said Robin Hood

"Or else I were to blame;

Three whuës in a friar's fist

Would make me glad and fain."

The friar set his fist to his mouth,
And whuted whuës three;
Half a hundred good ban-dogs
Came running over the lea.

"Here's for every man a dog, And I myself for thee;"

"Nay, by my faith," said Robin Hood, "Friar, that may not be."

Two dogs at once to Robin Hood did go,
The one behind, the other before;
Robin Hood's mantle of Lincoln green
Off from his back they tore.

And whether his men shot east or west,
Or they shot north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were,
They kept the arrows in their mouth.

"Take up thy dogs," said Little John,

"Friar, at my bidding be;

"Whose man art thou," said the curtal friar, "Comes here to prate with me?"

"I am Little John, Robin Hood's man,

Friar, I will not lie;

If thou take not up thy dogs soon,
I'll take them up and thee."

Little John had a bow in his hand,
He shot with might and main ;
Soon half a score of the friar's dogs
Lay dead upon the plain.

"Hold thy hand, good fellow," said the curtal

66

friar,

'Thy master and I will agree;

And we will have new orders taken

With all the haste may be."

"If thou wilt forsake fair Fountain Dale,
And Fountain Abbey free,

Every Sunday throughout the year,
A noble shall be thy fee:

"And every holiday through the year,
Changed shall thy garment be,

If thou wilt go to fair Nottingham,
And there remain with me."

The curtal friar had kept Fountain Dale
Seven long years and more;

There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT

FYTTE THE FIRST

The Percy out of Northumberland,

And a vow to God made he
That he would hunt in the mountains
Of Cheviot within days three,

In the maugre of 1 doughty Douglas
And all that ever with him be.

The fattest harts in all Cheviot

He said he would kill, and carry them away: "By my faith,” said the doughty Douglas again, "I will let that hunting if I may."

Then the Percy out of Banborough came,

With him a mighty meinie,2

With fifteen hundred archers bold of blood and

bone;

They were chosen out of shires three.

This began on a Monday at morn
In Cheviot the hillës so high;

The child may rue that is unborn,
It was the more pitye.

1 in spite of.

2 following.

The drivers through the woodës went,
For to raise the deer ;

Bowmen bickered 1 upon the bent

With their broad arrows clear.

Then the wild thorough the woodës went,
On every side sheer,

Greyhoundës thorough the grevës glent,
For to kill their deer.

This began in Cheviot the hills aboun,
Early on a Monnyn-day,

By that it drew to the hour of noon
A hundred fat harts dead there lay.

They blew a mort upon the bent,
They 'sembled on sides sheer,
To the quarry then the Percy went,
To see the brittling of the deer.

He said, "It was the Douglas' promise
This day to meet me here;

But I wist he would fail, verament;
A great oath the Percy sware.

At the last a squire of Northumberland
Looked at his hand full nigh;

He was 'ware of the doughty Douglas coming, With him a mighty meinie.

1 went hurriedly.

Both with spear, bill, and brand,

It was a mighty sight to see ; Hardier men, both of heart and hand,

Were not in Christiantye.

They were twenty hundred spearmen good,
Withouten any fail;

They were born along by the water o' Tweed
I' th' bounds of Teviotdale.

"Leave off the brittling of the deer," he said;

66

"And to your bows look ye take good heed; For never sith ye were of your mothers born Had ye never so mickle 1 need."

The doughty Douglas on a steed
He rode all his men beforn;
His armor glittered as did a glede ;
A bolder bairn was never born.

"Tell me whose men ye are," he says,

"Or whose men that ye be:

Who gave you leave to hunt in this Cheviot chase, In the spite of mine and me?"

The first man that ever him an answer made,

It was the bold Percy :

"We will not tell thee whose men we are," he says, "Nor whose men that we be ;

But we will hunt here in this chase,
In the spite of thine and of thee.

1 much.