55

60

O four-and-twenty valiant knights
Were set the Queen to guard;

And four stood aye at her bour door,
To keep both watch and ward.

But when the time drew near an end,
That she suld lighter be,

She cast about to find a wile,

To set her body free.

O she has birled these merry young men

With the ale but and the wine,

Until they were a' deadly drunk
As any wild-wood swine.

"O narrow, narrow is this window, And big, big am I grown!"

Yet through the might of Our Ladye,

Out at it she is gone.

65

She wander'd up, she wander'd down,

She wander'd out and in;

70

And, at last, into the very swine's stythe,

The Queen brought forth a son.

Then they cast kevils them amang,
Which suld gae seek the Queen ;
And the kevil fell upon Wise William,
And he sent his wife for him.

O when she saw Wise William's wife,

The Queen fell on her knee: "Win up, win up, madam!" she says: "What needs this courtesie?"

"O out o' this I winna rise,

Till a boon ye grant to me;

To change your lass for this lad bairn,
King Honour left me wi'.

"And ye maun learn my gay goss-hawk

Right weel to breast a steed;

And I sall learn your turtle dow

As weel to write and read.

"And ye maun learn my gay goss-hawk

To wield both bow and brand; And I sall learn your turtle dow To lay gowd wi' her hand.

"At kirk and market when we meet,

We'll dare make nae avowe,

But-Dame, how does my gay goss-hawk?' 'Madame, how does my dow?" "

When days were gane, and years came on,
Wise William he thought lang;

And he has ta'en King Honour's son

A-hunting for to gang.

80

65

90

96

100

It sae fell out, at this hunting,
Upon a simmer's day,

That they came by a bonny castell,
Stood on a sunny brae.

"O dinna ye see that bonny castell,
Wi' halls and towers sae fair?

Gin ilka man had back his ain,
Of it you suld be heir."

"How I suld be heir of that castell,

In sooth, I canna see ;

For it belangs to Fause Foodrage,

And he is na kin to me."

"O gin ye suld kill him, Fause Foodrage, You would do but what was right; For I wot he kill'd your father dear,

Or ever ye saw the light.

106

110

115

"And gin ye suld kill him, Fause Foodrage,
There is no man durst you blame;
For he keeps your mother a prisoner,
And she darna take ye hame.”-

The boy stared wild like a gray goss-hawk,
Says," What may a' this mean?"
"My boy, ye are King Honour's son,
And your mother's our lawful queen."

120

"O gin I be King Honour's son,

By our Ladye I swear,

This night I will that traitor slay,

And relieve my mother dear!"—

He has set his bent bow to his breast,

And leaped the castell wa';

125

130

And he has rewarded Wise William

Wi' the best half o' his land;

135

And sae has he the turtle dow

Wi' the truth o' his right hand.

140

BONNIE ANNIE.

From Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 123.

"There is a prevalent belief among seafaring people, that if a person who has committed any heinous crime be on ship-board, the vessel, as if conscious of its guilty burden, becomes unmanageable, and will not sail till the offender be removed to discover whom, they usually resort to the trial of those on board, by casting lots; and the individual upon whom the lot falls, is declared the criminal, it being believed that Divine Providence interposes in this manner to point out the guilty person."-KINLOCH.

Motherwell is inclined to think this an Irish ballad, though popular in Scotland.

With Bonnie Annie may be compared Jon Rimaardsöns Skriftemaal, Danske Viser, ii. 220; or, Herr Peders Sjöresa, Svenska Folk-Visor, ii. 31, Arwiddson, ii. 5 (translated in Literature and Romance of Northern Europe, 276).

THERE was a rich lord, and he lived in Forfar,
He had a fair lady, and one only dochter.
O she was fair, O dear! she was bonnie,
A ship's captain courted her to be his honey.