despond, that many of his men slunk away, though Northumberland still kept up his resolution, and was master of the field till December 13, when the Earl of Sussex, accompanied with Lord Hunsden and others, having marched out of York at the head of a large body of forces, and being followed by a still larger army under the command of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, the insurgents retreated northward towards the borders, and there dismissing their followers, made their escape into Scotland. Though this insurrection had been suppressed with so little bloodshed, the Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes, marshal of the army, put vast numbers to death by martial law, without any regular trial. The former of these caused at Durham sixty-three constables to be hanged at once. And the latter made his boast, that for sixty miles in length, and forty in breadth, betwixt Newcastle and Wetherby, there was hardly a town or village wherein he had not executed some of the inhabitants. This exceeds the cruelties practised in the West after Monmouth's rebellion. "Such is the account collected from Stow, Speed, Camden, Guthrie, Carte, and Rapin; it agrees, in most particulars, with the following Ballad, apparently the production of some northern minstrel.-- "Listen, lively lordings all, Lithe and listen unto mee, And I will sing of a noble earle, The noblest earle in the north countrie. Earle Percy is into his garden gone, And after him walks his fair leddie: I heard a bird sing in mine ear, That I must either fight, or flee. Now heaven forefend, my dearest lord, That ever such harm should hap to thee: But goe to London to the court, And fair fall truth and honestie. Now nay, now nay, my ladye gay, Alas! thy counsell suits not mee; Mine enemies prevail so fast, That at the court I may not bee. O goe to the court yet, good my lord, And take thy gallant men with thee; If any dare to do you wrong, Then your warrant they may bee. Now nay, now nay, thou ladye faire, The court is full of subtiltie: And if I goe to the court, ladye, Never more I may thee see. Yet goe to the court, my lord, she sayes, And I myselfe will ryde wi' thee: At court then for my dearest lord, His faithful borrowe I will bee. Now nay, now nay, my ladye deare; Far lever had I lose my life, Than leave among my cruell foes My love in jeopardy and strife. But come thou hither, my little foot-page, Come thou hither unto mee, To Maister Norton thou must goe In all the haste that ever may bee. Commend me to that gentleman, And beare this letter here fro mee; And say that earnestly I praye, He will ryde in my companie.