Willie and Lady Maisry
No: 70; variant: 70A
- WILLIE was a widow's son,
And he wore a milk-white weed, O
And weel could Willie read and write,
Far better ride on steed. O
- Lady Margerie was the first lady
That drank to him the wine,
And aye as the healths gade round and round,
'Laddy, your love is mine.'
- Lady Margerie was the first ladye
That drank to him the beer,
And aye as the healths gade round and round,
'Laddy, you're welcome here.'
- 'You must come into my bower
When the evening bells do ring,
And you must come into my bower
When the evening mass doth sing.'
- He's taen four and twenty braid arrows,
And laced them in a whang,
And he's awa to Lady Margerie's bower,
As fast as he can gang.
- He set ae foot on the wall,
And the other on a stane,
And he's killed a' the king's life-guards,
And he's killed them every man.
- 'Oh open, open, Lady Margerie,
Open and let me in;
The weet weets a' my yellow hair,
And the dew draps on my chin.'
- With her feet as white as sleet
She strode her bower within,
And with her fingers long and small
She's looten Sweet Willie in.
- She's louten down unto her foot
To loose Sweet Willie's shoon;
The buckles were sa stiff they wudna lowse,
The blood had frozen in.
- 'O Willie, Willie, I fear that thou
Has bred me dule and sorrow;
The deed that thou has dune this nicht
Will kythe upon the morrow.'
- In then came her father dear,
And a broad sword by his gare,
And he's gien Willie, the widow's son,
A deep wound and a sair.
- 'Lye yont, lye yont, Willie,' she says,
'Your sweat weets a' my side;
Lye yont, lie yont, Willie,' she says,
'For your sweat I downa bide.'
- She turned her back unto the wa,
Her face unto the room,
And there she saw her auld father,
Walking up and down.
- 'Woe be to you, father,' she said,
'And an ill deed may you die!
For ye've killd Willie, the widow's son
And he would have married me.'
- She turned her back unto the room,
Her face unto the wa,
And with a deep and heavy sich
Her heart it brak in twa.