The Braes o Yarrow
No: 214; variant: 214H
- 'TWAS late at evening drinking wine,
And early in the morning,
He set a combat them among,
And he fought it in the morning.
- 'I have two swords by my side,
They cost me both gold and money;
Take ye the best, I'll take the worst,
Come man for man, I'll try ye.'
- He has foughten them all round,
His equal man and marrow,
While up bespake the stubborn lord,
'He's made them sleep in Yarrow.'
- He says, Go home, my daughter Ann,
And tell your sister Sarah
To come and lift her stubborn lord;
The lad's made him sleep in Yarrow.
- As she gaed up yon high, high hill,
I wot she gaed right sorrow,
And in a den spied nine well armd men,
In the dowie dens of Yarrow.
- 'My love was dressd in the finest robes,
And of the finest tartan,
And now he's a' clad oer wi red,
He's bloody to the gartan!'
- 'O hold yer tongue, daughter!' he says,
'That would breed but sorrow;
Ye shall be wed to a finer lord
Than the one you've lost in Yarrow.'
- 'Hold your tongue, father!' she says,
'For that will breed but sorrow;
A finer lord can neer be born
Than the one I've lost in Yarrow.
- 'Take hame yer ox, and take hame yer kye,
You've bred me muckle sorrow;
I wish they'd a' gane mad that day,
That day they came to Yarrow.'
- This woman being big wi child,
And full of lamentation,
She died into her father's arms,
Among that stubborn nation.