'And ye maun learn my gay gos-hawk, To wield both bow and brand; And I sall learn your turtle-dow To lay gowd wi' her hand. 'At kirk and market, when we meet, We'll dare make nae avowe, But--Dame, how does my gay gos-hawk? Madam, how does my dow?' When the royal youth grows up, Wise William reveals to him his history, and how his mother is still in confinement in Foodrage's hands. 'The boy stared wild like a gray gos-hawk' at hearing the strange intelligence, but soon resolves on a course of action: He has set his bent bow to his breast, And leapt the castle-wa', And soon he has seized on Fause Foodrage, Wha loud for help 'gan ca'. The slaying of Foodrage and marriage of the turtle-dow wind up the ballad. Now, is not the adoption of the term, 'gay gos-hawk' in this ballad, calculated to excite a very strong suspicion as to a community of authorship with the other, in which a gay gos-hawk figures so prominently? But this is not all. 'The boy stared wild like a gray gos-hawk,' is nearly identical with a line of _Hardyknute_: Norse e'en like gray gos-hawk stared wild. Scott was roused by this parallelism into suspicion of the authenticity of the ballad, and only tranquillised by finding a lady of rank who remembered hearing in her infancy the verses which have here been quoted. He felt compelled, he tells us, 'to believe that the author of _Hardyknute_ copied from the old ballad, if the coincidence be not altogether accidental.' Finally, the young prince's procedure in storming the castle, is precisely that of Gil Morrice in gaining access to that of Lord Barnard: And when he cam to Barnard's yett, He would neither chap nor ca', But set his bent bow to his breast, And lightly lap the wa'. It may fairly be said that, in ordinary literature, coincidences like this are never 'accidental.' It may be observed, much of the narration in _Fause Foodrage_ is in a stiff and somewhat hard style, recalling _Hardyknute_. It was probably one of the earlier compositions of its author. The _Lass o' Lochryan_ describes the hapless voyage of a maiden mother in search of her love Gregory. In the particulars of sea-faring and the description of the vessel, _Sir Patrick Spence_ is strongly recalled. She has garred build a bonny ship; It's a' covered o'er wi' pearl; And at every needle-tack was in't There hung a siller bell. Let the reader revert to the description of the bier prepared for the seeming dead lady in the _Gay Gos-hawk_. She had na sailed a league but twa, Or scantly had she three, Till she met wi' a rude rover, Was sailing on the sea. The reader will remark in _Sir Patrick_: They had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely three, &c. The rover asks: 'Now, whether are ye the queen hersel, Or ane o' her Maries three, Or are ye the Lass o' Lochryan, Seeking love Gregory?'[20]