That heart, fhe faid, is lightly priz❜d, Lord PERCY made a folemn feaft And there came lords, and there came knights, With waffel mirth, and revelry The castle rung around: Lord PERCY, call'd for fong and harp, The Minstrels of thy noble house, The great atchievements of thy race They fung: their high command: "How valiant Mainfred o'er the feas "Firft led his northern band.* "Brave Galfred next to Normandy See Dugdale's Baronage, pag. 269, &c. In lower Normandy are three places of the name of PERCY: whence the family took the furname of De PERCY. "They fung, how in the conqueror's fleet "Then journeying to the Holy Land, "They fung how Agnes, beauteous heir, * William de Percy, (fifth in descent from Galfred or Geffrey de Percy, fon of Mainfred,) affifled in the conquest of England, and had given him the large poffeffions in Yorkshire, of Emma de Porte, (fo the Norman writers name her,) whose father, a great Saxon lord, had been slain fighting along with Harold. This young lady, William from a principle of honour and generofity, married: for having had all her lands beftowed upon him by the conqueror, "he (to use the "words of the old Whitby Chronicle) wedded hyr that was very heire to them, in difcharging of his confci"ence." See Harl. MSS. 692. (26)-He died at Mountjoy near Jerufalem in the firft crufade. + Agnes de Percy, fole heirefs of her houfe, married Fofceline de Lovain, youngest fon of Godfrey Barbatus, duke of Brabant, and brother of queen Adeliza, fecond wife of king Henry I. He took the name of Percy, and was ancestor of the earls of Northumberland. His fon lord Richard de Percy was one of the twenty-fix barons, chofen to fee the Magna Charta duly obferved. "How he the PERCY name reviv'd, "And how his noble line "Still foremost in their country's cause "With godlike ardour shine:" With loud acclaims the liftening crowd Now high heroic acts they tell, When, lo! a damfel young and fair She Bertram courteously addrefs'd; Then forth the drew a glittering helme The cafque was wrought of tempered fteel, Sir knight, thy lady fends thee this, Young Bertram took the fhining helme Lord PERCY and his baron's bold To fcour the marches, late opprefs'd The knights affembled on the hills Tweed's limpid current foon they pass, As when a lion in his den Attendant on their chief's command A chofen troop of Scottish youths Lord PERCY mark'd their gallant mein, Now, Bertram, prove thy Lady's helme, Attack yon forward band; Dead or alive I'll refcue thee, Or perish by their hand. Young Bertram, bow'd with glad affent, As when a grove of Sapling oaks This way and that he drives the fteel, Now clofing faft on every fide The vigour of his fingle arm Another blow his temples took, Lord PERCY faw his champion fall And now, my noble friends, he faid, |