ng made of Otterbourne_, telleth
the time, about Lammas; and also the occasion, to take preys out of
England; also the dividing the armies betwixt the earls of Fife
and Douglas, and their several journeys, almost as in the authentic
history. It beginneth thus;

"It fell about the Lammas tide,
"When yeomen win their hay,
"The doughty Douglas 'gan to ride,
"In England to take a prey."--

GODSCROFT, _ed. Edin_. 1743. Vol. I. p. 195.

I cannot venture to assert, that the stanzas, here published, belong
to the ballad alluded to by Godscroft; but they come much nearer to
his description than the copy published in the first edition, which
represented Douglas as falling by the poignard of a faithless
page. Yet we learn, from the same author, that the story of the
assassination was not without foundation in tradition.--"There are
that say, that he (Douglas) was not slain by the enemy, but by one of
his own men, a groom of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before
with a truncheon, in ordering of the battle, because he saw him make
somewhat slowly to. And they name this man John Bickerton of Luffness,
who left a part of his armour behind, unfastened, and when he was in
the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behind his back, and
slew him thereat."--_Godscroft, ut supra_.--"But this narration," adds
the historian, "is not so probable."[102] Indeed, it seems to have
no foundation, but the common desire of assigning some remote and
extraordinary cause for the death of a great man. The following ballad
is also inaccurate in many other particulars, and is much shorter, and
more indistinct, than that printed in the _Reliques_, although many
verses are almost the same. Hotspur, for instance, is called _Earl
Percy_, a title he never enjoyed; neither was Douglas buried on the
field of battle, but in Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still shown.

[Footnote 102: Wintown assigns another cause for Douglas being
carelessly armed.

"The erle Jamys was sa besy,
For til ordane his cumpany;
And on his Fays for to pas,
That reckles he of his armyng was;
The Erle of Mwrrawys Bassenet,
Thai sayd, at that tyme was feryhete."

Book VIII. Chap 7.

The circumstance of Douglas' omitting to put on his helmet, occurs in
the ballad.]

This song was first published from Mr. Herd's _Collection of Scottish
Songs and Ballads_, Edin. 1774: 2 vols. octavo; but two recited copies
have fortunately been obtained from th