A green turf tyed across his breast, To keep that gude lord down. Then up and spake the King himsell, 66 When he saw the deadly wound- Then up and spake the popinjay, Says "What needs a' this din? It was his light leman took his life, She swore her by the grass sae grene, Sae did she by the corn, She hadna seen him, Erl Richard, Since Moninday at morn. "Put na the wite on me," she said, Then they hae cut baith fern and thorn, To burn that maiden in. It wadna take upon her cheik, Nor yet upon her yellow hair, To cleanse the deadly sin. 90 95 100 105 110 some resemblance to a boiling caldron. Linn, means the pool beneath a cataract. SCOTT. The maiden touch'd the clay-cauld corpse, A drap it never bled; The ladye laid her hand on him, And soon the ground was red. Out they hae ta'en her, may Catherine, And put her mistress in; The flame tuik fast upon her cheik, Tuik fast upon her chin; Tuik fast upon her faire body She burn'd like hollin-green. 115 120 120. The lines immediately preceding, "The maiden touched," &c., and which are restored from tradition, refer to a superstition formerly received in most parts of Europe, and even resorted to by judicial authority, for the discovery of murder. In Germany, this experiment was called bahrrecht, or the law of the bier; because, the murdered body being stretched upon a bier, the suspected person was obliged to put one hand upon the wound and the other upon the mouth of the deceased, and, in that posture, call upon heaven to attest his innocence. If, during this ceremony, the blood gushed from the mouth, nose, or wound, a circumstance not unlikely to happen in the course of shifting or stirring the body, it was held sufficient evidence of the guilt of the party. SCOTT. EARL RICHARD. OBTAINED from recitation by Motherwell, and printed in his Minstrelsy, p. 218. EARL RICHARD is a hunting gone, His hunting-horn hung about his neck, When he came to my lady's gate, He tirled at the pin; And wha was sae ready as the lady hersell "O light, O light, Earl Richard," she says, You shall have cheer wi' charcoal clear, 10 "I will not light, I cannot light, I cannot light at all; A fairer lady than ten of thee Is waiting at Richard's-wall." He stooped from his milk-white steed, She had a penknife in her hand, And wounded him so deep. “O lie ye there, Earl Richard," she says, 66 "O lie ye there till morn ; A fairer lady than ten of me Will think lang of your coming home." She called her servants ane by ane, She called them twa by twa: "I have got a dead man in my bower, I wish he were awa." The ane has ta'en him by the hand, And the other by the feet; 15 20 25 30 And they've thrown him in a deep draw well, Full fifty fathoms deep. Then up bespake a little bird, That sat upon a tree : "Gae hame, gae hame, ye fause lady, 35 And pay your maids their fee." "Come down, come down, my pretty bird, That sits upon the tree; I have a cage of beaten gold, I'll gie it unto thee." "Gae hame, gae hame, ye fause lady, As And pay your maids their fee; ye have done to Earl Richard, Sae wud ye do to me." "If I had an arrow in my hand, And a bow bent on a string; I'd shoot a dart at thy proud heart, Among the leaves sae green." 40 45 |