lay low vs lead on a merry chase

lay low

verb
  • simple past tense of lie low 

  • To topple or overcome; to cause to fall; (of a person) to knock out. 

  • To lie low, to be inconspicuous, especially when the potential object of search. 

lead on a merry chase

How often have the words lay low and lead on a merry chase occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )