In local tradition, Percy Reed's ghost is said to have haunted Redesdale for many years, and "at times he would come gallantly cantering across the moorland as he had done when blood ran warm in his veins.
...And yet, again, he would come as a fluttering, homeless soul, whimpering and formless, with a moaning cry for Justice-Justice-Judgment on him who had by black treachery hurried him unprepared to his end.
While he is asleep, the three “false Halls” steal his powder horn, pour water into the barrel of his gun, wedge his sword in its sheath, and remove the bridle from his horse, thus depriving Parcy of the means to either fight or flee.
Parcy successively offers them his horse, his oxen, half his land, and ultimately the hand of his daughter if they will stand with him in the coming fight, but each Hall refuses in turn.
Parcy asks for one more favor: to bear his farewells to his wife and kin at Troughend, and to tell all his faithful neighbors about the deeds of the “treacherous Halls”.