The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

104 THE LAY OF [CANTO III.
XVIII.
He would not do the fair child harm,
But held him with his powerful arm,
That he might neither fight nor flee;
For when the Red-Cross spied he,
The boy strove long and violently.
"Now, by St. George," the archer cries,
"Edward, methinks we have a prize!
This boy's fair face, and courage free,
Show he is come of high degree."XIX.
"Yes! I am come of high degree,
For I am the heir of bold Buccleuch;
And, if thou dost not set me free,
False Southron, thou shalt dearly rue!
For Walter of Harden shall come with speed,
And William of Deloraine, good at need,
And every Scott, from Esk to Tweed;
And, if thou dost not let me go,
thighe, so that the speare went clene throughe, that the heed
was sene a handfull on the other syde. And Syr Johan with
the stroke reled, but he fell nat. Than the Englyshe knyghtes
and squyers were ryghte sore displeased, and sayde how it
was a foule stroke. Syr Wyllyam Fermetone excused himselfe, and sayde how he was sorie of that adventure, and
howe that yf he had knowen that it shulde have bene so, he
wolde never have begon it; sayenge how he could nat amende
it, by cause of glaunsing of his fote by constraynt of the great
stroke that Syr Johan of the Castell-Morant had given him."
-FROISSART, vol. i. chap. 373.