board a little bark; keeping along the sea-shore till he descried a ship of some burthen,3 which seemed preparing to sail. In this he embarked; the master of the vessel still paying him that homage which was due to his former station. (GOLDSMITH, History of Rome.) THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN. (PERCY AND DOUGLAS.) It was from prudence, not from want of courage, that the Scots avoided great battles with the English. They readily engaged in smaller actions, when 5 they fought with the utmost valour on both sides, till, as an old historian expresses it, sword and lance could endure no longer, and then they would part from each other, saying, "Good day; and thanks for the sport you have shown." "18 A very remarkable instance of such a desperate battle9 occurred in the year 1388. The Scottish nobles had determined upon an invasion of England on a large scale,10 and had assembled a great army for that purpose; but learning that the people 11 of Northumberland were raising an army on the eastern frontier, they resolved to limit their incursion 12 to that which might be achieved by the Earl of Douglas, with a chosen band 13 of four or five thousand men. With this force he penetrated into the mountainous frontier of 1 mounted in a little boat.' 2 Il gagna ainsi la mer; et, côtoyant le rivage, il. 3 un bâtiment de charge assez grand. 4 'to pay,' here: see p. 105, n. 7. 5 and then ;' see page 18, note 13. 6 refused their service.' 7 See page 45, note 4. ment que vous m'avez procuré. 9 de ces combats à outrance (see page 132, note 19). 10had formed the project of making a formidable invasion in England.' the inhabitants.'-'of Northumberland;' see page 26, note". 12 Use the plural. 13 troupe d'élite (as corps d'élite, Au revoir, merci de l'amuse- picked men '). England, where an assault was least expected,1 and issuing forth 2 near Newcastle, fell upon the flat and rich country around, slaying, plundering, burning, and loading his army with spoil. 4 3 Percy, Earl of Northumberland, an English noble of great power, and with whom the Douglas had frequently had encounters, sent his two sons, Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, to stop the progress of the invasion. Both were gallant knights; but the first, who, from his impetuosity, was called Hotspur, was one of the most distinguished warriors in England, as Douglas was in 5 Scotland. The brothers threw themselves hastily into Newcastle, to defend that important town; and as Douglas, in an insulting manner, drew up his followers before the walls, they came out to skirmish with the Scots. Douglas and Henry Percy encountered personally; and it so chanced,10 that Douglas in the struggle got possession 11 of Hotspur's spear, to the end of which was attached a small ornament of silk, embroidered with 12 pearls, on which was represented a lion, the cognizance, as it is called, of the Percies. 13 Douglas shook this trophy aloft, and declared that he would carry it into Scotland, and plant it on his castle of Dalkeith. 1 'a side (page 27, note 8) where they least expected an assault (attaque, in this sense, and sometimes insulte a term of war).' 2 et se montrant tout à coup (page 148, note 2); or, et débouchant tout à coup.-The English have now adopted, as a military term, the French verb deboucher, and given it an English termination, thus 'to debouch.' 3 mettant tout à feu et à sang. 4 Hotspur (i. e., éperon brûlant -tête chaude). 5 See page 32, note 6, and page 5, note 14 13 A semicolon after 'lion ;' c'était le cimier des Percys.-The student must not fancy that all proper names take the mark of the plural, in French: on the contrary, as a rule they do not, and this case is only an exception to the rule. The exception is, that proper names, in French, become plural when they may be considered as a title common to an illustrious family, a royal race, a clan, &c. : thus, les Stuarts, les Bourbons, and also in some cases somewhat similar to the preceding, as les Curiaces les Gracques, les Scipions, &c. I will "That," said Percy, "shalt thou never do.1 regain my lance ere thou canst get back into Scotland." "Then," said Douglas, come to seek it, and thou shalt find it before my tent." 66 The Scottish army, having completed the purpose of their expedition, began their retreat up the vale of the little river Reed, which afforded a tolerable road running north-westward towards their own frontier. They encamped at Otterburn, about twenty miles from the Scottish border, on the 19th August, 1388. In the middle of the night, the alarm arose in the Scottish camp, that the English host were coming upon them, and the moonlight showed the approach of Sir Henry Percy, with a body of men 5 superior in number to that of Douglas. He had already crossed the Reed water," and was advancing towards the left flank of the Scottish army. Douglas, not choosing to receive the assault in that position, drew his men out of the camp, and, with a degree of military skill which could scarce have been expected when his forces were of such an undisciplined character, he altogether changed the position of the army, and presented his troops with their front to the advancing English.9 7 8 Hotspur, in the meantime, marched his squadrons through the deserted camp, where there were none left 1 C'est ce que tu ne feras, &c. 2 à se retirer le long de la vallée qu'arrose (page 3, note 3). 3 Au. 4 'it was said that.' 5 of troops.' 6 Simply, the Reed' (fem.). 7'feeling the disadvantage of his.' 8 'skill... expected,' &c. The idea is not expressed correctly: the discipline of soldiers has to do not with the 'skill' of the chief, but with the execution of his orders; turn, se retira du camp avec toutes ses troupes, et par une manœuvre aussi habile que savante, qu'on n'aurait jamais cru de pareils soldats en état d'exécuter. See page 244, note 1. Here the past participle cru romains invariable, because it is not preceded by the If object of the verb (aurait cru): 7 but a few servants and stragglers of the army.1 The interruptions which the English troops met with,2 threw them a little into disorder;3,when the moon arising, showed them the Scottish army, which they had supposed to be retreating, drawn up in complete order, and prepared to fight. The battle commenced 5 with the greatest fury; for Percy and Douglas were the two most distinguished soldiers 5 of their time, and each army trusted in the courage and talents of their commanders, whose names were shouted on either side. The Scots, who were outnumbered,9 were at length about to give way, when Douglas, their leader, caused his banner to advance, attended by his best men1o. He himself,11 shouting his war-cry of "Douglas!" rushed forward, clearing his way with the blows of his battle-axe, and breaking into the very thickest of the enemy. He fell, at length, under three mortal wounds.13 Had his death been observed 14 by the enemy, the event would probably 15 have decided the battle against the Scots; but the English only knew that some brave man-at-arms had fallen, 16 Meantime, the other Scottish nobles pressed forward, and found their general 17 dying among several of his faithful esquires and pages, who lay slain around.is A stout priest, called William of North Berwick, the 1 quelques trainards (or, traineurs) et quelques valets d'armée. 2 The obstacles which it (il) presented to the march of the English troops.' * put some (quelque, here) disorder in their ranks.' 4 'when,' &c. ; turn, 'and it was at the moment that (see p. 18, n. 13) they thought the Scotch in full retreat, that by the moonshine (à la clarté de la lune) they saw them drawn up in complete order, and prepared to fight (rangés en ordre de bataille et qui attendaient de pied ferme).' 5 Use s'engager. 6 celebrated captains.' 7 chefs. 8 étaient répétés à grands cris de chaque. 9inferior in number.' 10 under the escort of his best warriors.' See p. 86, n. 1, p. 2, n. 5, and p. 148, n. 1. 12 1 chaplain of Douglas, was protecting the body of his wounded patron with a long lance.2 "How fares it,3 cousin?" said Sinclair, the first Scottish knight who came up to the expiring leader. "Indifferently," 4 answered Douglas; "but blessed be God, my ancestors have died in fields of battle, not on down beds. I sink fast; but let them still cry9 my warcry, and conceal my death from my followers.10 There was a tradition in our family that a dead Douglas should win a field,13 and I trust it will be this day accomplished." 11 "14 12 The nobles did as he had enjoined; they concealed the Earl's body, and again rushed on to the battle, shouting, "Douglas! Douglas!" louder 15 than before. The English were weakened by the loss of the brave brothers, Henry and Ralph Percy, both of whom 16 were made prisoners, fighting most gallantly,17 and almost no man of note 18 amongst the English escaped death or captivity. Sir Henry Percy became the prisoner of Sir Hugh Montgomery, who ob.iged him for 19 ransom to build a castle for him at Penoon in Ayrshire.20 The battle of Otterburn was disastrous to the leaders on both sides-Percy being made captive, 21 and Douglas slain on the field.22 It has been the subject of many songs and poems, and the great historian Froissart says that, one other action only excepted, it was the best fought battle of that warlike time. 23 (W. SCOTT, Tales of a Grandfather) 1 aumônier is more used, in this sense, than chapelain; see, besides, page 27, note 8. 2 de son maître, armé d'une lance. 3 Comment cela va-t-il. 4 Pas trop bien. 5 grâce à. 6 See page 66, note 12.- in,' here, sur. 7 lits de plumes. 8 Je sens que je m'en vais. pousser. 10 to the soldiers.' 11'is.' 12 which says that.' 13 a Douglas will gain a battle after his death.' 9 14 See page 104, note 12. 17 after prodigies of valour.' 18 distinction. 19 for his.' 20 dans le comté d'Ayr. 21 prisonnier;-the word captif is only used in poetry and in elevated style, in the sense of any prisoner: in ordinary style, it is said exclusively of prisoners reduced to slavery, according to the custom of the ancients. 22 champ de bataille; or, to avoid the awkward repetition of bataille, put dans le combat. 23 it was that in which (ou) ore fought best on both sides (de part et d'autre) in those times of wars. |