Where through y° Scots so oft were ouerthrowēn,
That who but I was doubted in my dayes:
And that king Richard founde at all assayes;
For never Scots rebelled in his raigne,

But through my force were eyther caught or slaine.

I

A brother I had was earle of Worcester,
Always in office and favour with the king,
And by my wyfe dame Elinor Mortimer,
A sonne I had which soe the Scots did sting,
That being yonge and but a very spring,
Henry Hotspur they gave him unto name,
And thoughe I say it, he did deserve the name.
Wee three triumphed in king Richard's tyme,
Till fortune ought both him and vs a spite;
But chiefly mee, whom clearely from any crime,
My king did banishe from his fauour quite,
Proclaiming me a trayterous knight: "

Where through false slaunder forced me to be,
That which before I did most deadlye flee,

Let men beware how they true folke defame,
Or threaten on them the blame of vices nought,
For infamy bredeth wrath, wreke followeth shame ;
The open slaunder oftentimes has brought
That to effect, that erst was neuer thought,
To be misdeemed, men suffer in a sort:
But none can beare the griefe of misreport.

Because my king did shame me wrongfullye
I hated him, and in deede became his foe;

before that they should depart (says Froissart) out of Parys the king came to the palais and there he made a dinner to the Englyshe knightes and caused sir Thomas Percy to sytte at his borde (his own table) and called hym cosin by reason of his Northumberland bloude. At which dinner there was given to sir Thos. Percy great giftes and fayre jewels." Sir Thomas Percy was by his mother lineally descended from king Lewis VIII. of France.

This is an error. The mother of Hotspur was a daughter of lord Neville of Raby, she was married at a very early age in 1358—after her death the earl married a second wife, Maud, sister and heir of lord Lucy. The mistake has arisen by confounding Hotspur's wife and his mother. He himself married Elizabeth daughter of Edward Mortimer, earl of March, by Phillippe only daughter of Lionel Plantagenet second son of Edward III.— Vide Collins' Peerage.

2 Previous to the king's departure for Ireland he had on urgent suspicion proclaimed the earl a traitor and declared his estates confiscated.

And while he did at warre in Ireland lye,
I did conspire to turn his weale to woe:
And through the duke of York and other moe,
All royall power from him we quickly toke,
And gaue the same to Henry Bolingbroke. '
Neither did wee this onely for this cause,
But to say truth, force draue vs to the same ;
For he despising God and all his lawes,
Slewe whom he would, made sinne a very game,
And seing neither age, nor counsaile could him tame,
We thought it well done for the kingdome's sake,
To leaue his rule who did all rule forsake,

But when sir Henry had attaynd his place,
He straight became in all pointes worse than he,
Destroyed the piers & slewe king Richard's grace,
Against his othe made to the lordes and mee ;
And seeking quarrels howe to disagree,
He shamelessly required me and my sonne,
To yeld him Scots which we in fielde had wonne.

My nephew also Edmonde Mortimer,
The very heyre apparent to the crowne,
Whom Owen Glendour helde as prisoner,
Vilely bound in dongeon deepe cast doune,
He would not raunsome but did fellye frowne,
Against my brother and mee which for him spake,
And him proclaymed traytour for our sake.

1 King Henry IV. The earl always declared as we are assured by Hardinge the historian, and by Collins, that he was deceived by Bolingbroke's oaths and protestations, that he had no intention to depose king Richard and when he was sent to Conway castle to persuade Richard to go with him to Bolingbroke at Flint, he did not scruple to tell the king of the errors of his government, but entered into a most solemn engagement that the differences between him and Bolingbroke should be settled in parliament, and till the same should be called, he undertook for the safety of his person.

2 Henry IV. after the battle of Homildon Hill, being desirous of gaining some of the spoils of victory, forbad Northumberland to ransome his prisoners, and demanded such of them as could pay largely for their redemption. To this the earl observed, that as it was most just that they who had undergone the danger of the battle should have all the advantage of prey and prisoners, so it had been the custom of the kings of England to allow the lords of the north all advantages of the Scotch wars to encourage them in defending his dominions, and to make up the damage of the continual depredations of that faithless people. The king however not only took the prisoners but was so displeased with the earl as not to suffer him to come into his presence.-Collins' Peerage.

This foule despite did cause us to conspire,
To put him doune as we did Richard erst;
And that we might this matter set on fire,
From Owen's iayle, our cossin we remeerst,
And unto Glendour all our griefes reherst,
Who made a bond with Mortimer and mee
To priue the king, and part the realm in three.

But when king Henry heard of the devise,
Toward Edward Glendour he sped him very quicke,
Mynding by force to stop our enterprise;
And as the deuill would, then fell I sicke, 1
Howbeit my brother and sonne more politicke
Than prosperous, with an hoaste from Scotland brought,
Encountred him at Shrewsbury where they fought.

The one was taen and kild, the other slayne,
And shortly after was Owen put to flight:
By meanes whereof I forced was to fayne,
That I knew nothing of the former fight.
Fraude oft auayles more than doth sturdy might :
For by my fayning I brought him in beliefe,
I knewe not that wherein my parte was chiefe.

And while the king thus toke me for his frend,
I sought all meanes my former wrong to wreake,
Which that I might bring to the soner end,
To the bishop of Yorke I did the matter breake;
And to th'earle Marshall likewyse did I speak,
Whose father was throughe Henrye's cause exiled,
The bishop's brother with trayterous death defiled,

These straight assented to do what they could,
So did the lord Hastings and lord Faucōbridge,
Which altogether promised they would,

I This indisposition probably saved Henry his crown, as the earl of Worcester, instead of waiting for his brother with the remainder of their forces, encountered the king and was himself slain by a chance arrow in the very heat of the fight. Hotspur was also killed fighting, though in the next stanza it is said 'one was taen and kild, and the other slayne.' But there is a difference between historians on this matter, some asserting that Worcester was beheaded after the battle.

2 Richard Scroope, archbishop of York, who with Thomas Mowbray had entered into a conspiracy to dethrone Henry. Their design was frustrated by the sagacity of the earl of Westmoreland. After that event the earl of Northumberland fled, first into Scotland, and then into Wales.

Set all their power the king's days to abridge:
But see the spite, before the byrdes were flydge,
The king had word and seasoned on the nest,
Whereby alas my frends were all opprest.

The bloudye tyraunt brought them al to ende
Excepted me, which into Scotland scapt,
To George of Dunbar th'erle of March my frende,
Who in my cause all that he could ey scrapt,
And when I had for greater succour gapt,
Both at the Frenchmen and the Flemings hand,
And could get none, I took such as I fand.

And with the helpe of George my very frend,
I did inuade Northumberland full bold,
Whereas the folke drew to me still on end,
Bent to death my partye to uphold:

Through helpe of these full many a fort and hold,
The which the king right manfully had man'd,
I easely wonne, and seized in my hand.

Not so content (for vengeance draue me on)
I entered Yorkshyre there to waste and spoyle;
But ere I had farre in the countrey gone,

The sheriffe thereof, Rafe Rokesbye' did assoyle,
My troubled hoaste of much part of our toyle;
For he assaulting freshly toke through power,
Me and lord Bardolph both at Bramham More.
And thence conveyed us to the towne of Yorke,
Until he knewe what was the kinge's intent,
Where then lord Bardolph kinder than the Storke,
Did lose his head which was to London sent,
With whom for friendship mine in like case went :
This was my hap, my fortune, or my faute,
This life I led, and then I came to nought.

2

1 He had been a friend of the earl's, and it has been asserted by Scottish historians, that he invited the earl into Yorkshire, with promises of assistance, but whether this be true or not, after the defeat of Northumberland on Bramham Moor, near Weatherby, in Yorkshire, he was certainly rewarded by a grant of the earl's manor of Spofford.

2 Lord Bardolph died of his wounds after being made prisoner; his head, with that of Northumberland, then white with age, was sent to London. The earl's body was quartered and part sent to Lincoln, part to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, part to Berwick, and another part to London. In the following May, they were, by the king's permission, taken down and buried in consecrated ground.

Wherefore, good Baldwin, will the piers take heede,
Of slaunder, malice, and conspiracye,

Of couetise, whence all the rest proceede;

For couetise joynt with contumacye,

Doth cause all mischiefe in mens hartes to breede:

And therefore this to Esperance my worde,
Who causeth bloudshed shall not escape the sword.

MEG OF MELDON,

A Northumbrian Tradition.

O, madam, madam,

Your gold will call down curses on your head!

We loved the youth, and could have wished him still

In his paternal halls; but he was driven

A wanderer amongst strangers, by your gold.

O, fie upon it! let its love not quench,
Within your heart, all generous sympathy
For human suffering. You have filled your barns
Up to the doors with grain, and when the poor,

For very hunger are compelled to buy,

The heavy charge is tendered with a curse!

Madam, beware of popular dislike:

It is a fiend that tears you when alive,

And, when you die, gibbets your memory,
To the derision of all future time.

Old Play.

E are not, in this country, like the early inhabitants of that classical land on the southeastern point of Europe, whose fertile imaginations peopled the earth and air with divinities, by whom they produced a system of mythology, which has drawn forth the wonder and admiration of the most gifted men through all succeeding times. Our ideas are more circumscribed, and imagination with us would seem to be much more limited in its power: we are able to follow where a master-spirit has pioneered the way; but incapable of inventing or furnishing forth a creation of our own. Our forefathers, we allow, admitted that ghosts, at murky midnight, walked