Broadside entitled 'Lament of Macfarlane, Blackwood and Young'

Transcription

LAMENT

0F

Macfarlane, Blackwood

And YOUNG.

EACH feeling heart pray lend an ear
Unto this mournful tale,
It will draw a tear of sympathy,
I'm sure it cannot fail;
It's of three wretched criminals,
In prison now we lie,
For the murder of Alexander Boyd
We are condemned to die.

On the eleventh day of the next month,
What an awful sight to see,
Macfarlane, Blackwood, and Young
Are to die on the gallows tree,
A public show to high and low,
O, Lord, to thee we pray,
Our wretched souls for to receive
Upon the judgment day.

In our gloomy cells, when 'tis midnight.
His dying groans we hear,
And no rest here can we find,
For his murdered form appears,
Pointing unto us with scorn,
Which makes us quake and pale,
As he with solemn words docs cry
For vengeance on us all.

Oh, much better we had ne'er been born
To feel the grief this day.
But fate ordained it otherwise,
And we must not say nay ;
When unto us the judge did say?
No mercy you did give
To your victim, Alexander Boyd,
And none you will receive.

For the awful crime that we had done
He bade us watch and pray,
And to prepare ourselves to die
Upon that fatal day ;
An awful sight unto the friends
Whom we shall leave behind,
Hoping with the Lord to dwell,
Where we will comfort find.

What must our friends and parents feel,
When they our sentence read,
And see that we're condemned to die,
'Twill make their hearts to bleed ;
But life for life it is the word,
By the laws of God and man,
And may our fate a warning be
When we on the scaffold stand.

Now all young men and maidens fair,
To yon we write one word,
From virtue's paths, Oh, never stray,
But love and fear the Lord,
Earn your bread in honesty,
And shun bad company,
It by our parents we'd been ruled,
We now might happy be.

Unto our friends and comrades dear,
We write our lsat farewell,
Hoping such a horrid deed
You never more may tell;
It will cause many of you to shed a tear,
And tremble, when you see
Us launched into eternity,
Opon the fatal gallows tree.

LAMENT
OF
MACFARLANE,
Blackwood and Young,
At present under Sentence of Death
in Glasgow Jail.

Good people attend to our sad dismal tale,
And let our latter end be a warning to thee,
For base cruel murder we're doomed to suffer,
On the eleventh of August we must die on a tree.

Whilst others are sleeping we're constantly weeping,
No rest to our bosoms now e'er can we find ;
In sorrow we're bounded and with grief surrounded?
From the thoughts of our fate no peace can we find

Alas, that Macfarlane should e'er have been tempted,
With Blackwood and Young, poor Boyd to destroy,
Had we but remained in the bright paths of virtue,
Our lives might have ended in comfort and joy.

Oh, little we thought on the twelfth day of June,
When our poor deluded victim from the window we threw
That in two months there after our doom should he sealed,
That our lives should be taken for the one that we slew.

We murdered poor Boyd, and now we must suffer,
O, heaven ! nave pity, and do not judge we,
But grant us relief, for our poor mind's distracted,
In the height of our prime we must die on a tree.

On the twenty-first of July, in the year fifty-three,
Before the bar of justice our trial came on,
For the horrid crime of murder we were indicted,
To answer for the cruel deed we had done.

Our trial being over, our doom was soon sealed,
And now the hand of justice doth us pursue,
But the hour's fast approaching will end all our sorrow-
Dear friends and relations a long long adieu.

O, may our sad fate unto all be a warning,
To both young and old that our sad tale does hear,
Our life in this world it soon will be over,
There's no one to pity us?Lord our prayer hear.

Glasgow :?Sold Wholesale at 203 Gallowgate.

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