"O cease your sports!" Earl Piercy said,
"And take your bows with speed,

"And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance!
For there was never champion yet
In Scotland nor in France

"That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,
I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spear."

Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,
Rode foremost of his company,
Whose armour shone like gold:

"Show me," said he, "whose men you be
That hunt so boldly here;
That without my consent do chase
And kill my fallow deer."

The first man that did answer make
Was noble Piercy, he,
Who said, "We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be;

"Yet we will spend our dearest blood
Thy chiefest harts to slay."