There is
fighting at the gate. The King says that three disguised lads of
France have stolen his flag. The Maitlands apparently heard of this;
the youngest goes to Edward, and explains that they are Maitland's
sons, and Scots; they challenge any three Englishmen; a thing in the
manner of the period. The three Scots are victorious. Young Edward
then challenges one of the dauntless three, who slays him. Edward
wishes himself home at London Tower.
Such is the story. It is out of the regular line of ballad narrative,
but it does not follow that, in the sixteenth century, some such tale
was not told "in rural rhyme" about Maitland's "three noble sons."
That it is not historically true is nothing, of course, and that it is
not in the Scots of the thirteenth century is nothing.
Colonel Elliot asks, What in the ballad raised suspicion of forgery (in
1802-03)? The historical inaccuracies are common to all historical
ballads. (In an English ballad known to me of 1578, Henry Darnley is
"hanged on a tree"!)
Next, "there are occasional lines, and even stanzas, which jar in style
to such a degree that they must have been written by two separate
hands.
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