captured pennon of Percy's is mentioned, no encounter of the heroes "at
the barriers" of Newcastle. Percy, from the castle wall, merely
threatens Douglas vaguely; Douglas says, "Where will you meet me?" and
Percy appoints Otterburn as we said. He makes the absurd remark that,
by way of supplies (for 40,000 men), Douglas will find abundance of
pheasants and red deer. {69a}

We see that the English balladist is an unwarlike literary hack. The
author of the Ettrick version knew better the nature of war, as we
shall see, and his Douglas objects to Otterburn as a place destitute of
supplies; nothing is there but wild beasts and birds. If the original
poem is the sensible poem, the Scott version is the original which the
English hath perverted.

In Hogg, Douglas jousts with Percy at Newcastle, and gives him a fall.
Then come two verses (viii.-ix.). The second is especially modern and
mawkish -


But O how pale his lady look'd,
Frae off the castle wa',
When down before the Scottish spear
She saw brave Percy fa'!
How pale and wan his lady look'd,
Frae off the castle hieght,
When she beheld her Percy yield
To doughty Douglas' might.


Colonel Elliot asks, "Can any one believe that these stanzas are really