Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

60
THE ATTEMPT
The bowl is deep, the brose is het,
As het as weel may he;
King’s hunger ’gainst a woman’s speed !
blow kilt thy coats an’ flee ! ”
0, she has kilted up her coats,
An’ hound her flying hair,
An’ sic a race as she maun rin,
I trow ran woman ne’er.
She stinted not for briar hush,
For stane, nor yet for thorn,
But aye she wan, an’ aye she ran,
Wi’ limbs and garments torn.
An’ first she saw a wily fox,
Was running roun’ the hill,
Wi’ fatted goose from her ain store:
She liked the sight hut ill.
“ Way huntsman find ye wily beast,
That comes at sic a time,
But better ’twere fat goose to want,
Than rood o’ land to tyne.”
An’ syne she saw a miller man,
Slept on the Sheeling Hill,
An’ roun’ him played the fiery flames
On rafter, roof, and kiln.
“ How soundly sleep, thou miller man,
An’ fire burn merrilie,
For an’ I stop to wake an’ quench,
ITrr’s dame I ne’er shall be.”
And when she gained the house again,
She gave but ae peep in,
But that ae peep showed sight wad cheer
The heart o’ living thing.
For side by side the twa knights sat,
An’ smiling merrilie,
Wi’ but ae spoon between them twa,
They supped right heartilie.
Four words she spak, she spak but four,
“ Fair play, my liege, fair play,”
Ere wi’ ae bound by bank and stream,
Ance mair she was away.
Then spak the Southron to the king,
“ I like thy fare not ill,
An’ for the dame that made the food,
1 like her better still.
Were hearts like hers within the breasts
Of half your Scottish men,
We Southrons might from this fair land
Turn bridles home again.”
An’ aye the sturdy dame ran on,
An’ ere the brose was done,
Fu’ mony a mile o’ bonny land
For heritage she won.
An’ thus she said, “ O’ a’ this land
I shall be ca’ed ladie,
An’ Sprott of Urr in time to come
An honoured name shall be.