Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

16
" If thou'rt the lord o' this castle,
Sae weel it pleases me !
For, ere I cross the Border fells,
The tane of us shall die."
He took a lang speir in his hand,
Shod with the metal free ;
And, for to meet the Douglas there,
He rode richt furiouslie.
But O how pale his lady looked,
Frae afF the castle wa'.
When doun, before the Scottish speir.
She saw proud Percy fa' !
" Had we twa been upon the green,
And never an eye to see,
I wad hae had you, flesh and fell ; *
But your sword shall gae wi' me."
" But gae ye up to Otterbourne,-{-
And wait there dayis three ;
And if I come not ere three dayis end,
A fause knicht ca' ye me."
" The Otterbourne 's bonnie burn ;
'Tis pleasant there to be ;
But there is nocht at Otterbourne
To feed my men and me.
The deer rins wild on hill and dale, :{:
The birds fly wild from tree to tree ;
But there is neither bread nor kale
To fend § my men and me.
* Flesh and skin.
t Otterbourne is a small vale in the parish of Elsdon, Northumberland,
near the old Watling-street road.
ij: Roebucks were to be found upon the wastes of Northumberland so
lately as the reign of George I.
§ Sustain.