Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

297
Your enemies are past and gone,
And carefully I will thee keep."
But Johnston had a little sword,
Hung low doun by his gair ;
And he ritted it through his dear ladye,
And Avounded her sae sair.
" What ails ye now, my dear Johnston ?
What ails ye now at me ?
Have you not got my mother's gold,
But and my mother's fee ?"
" Ochone ! alas I my ladye gay,
To come sac hastilie I
I thocht it was my deidly fae.
Ye had trysted unto me.
Oh live, oh live, my dear ladye !
Oh live but ae half hour !
And there's no a leech in a' Scotland,
But shall be at thy bouir !"
*' How can I live, my dear Johnston ?
How can I live for thee ?
See ye not how my red heart's blude
Rins trickling by my knee?
But go thy way, my dear Johnston,
And ride out ower yon plain ;
And think nae mair of your ain true love,
Than if she had never been." *
* First published as a fragment in Herd's Collection, under the title of
'• The Cruel Knight." The above version is compiled out of two complete
ones which have since been published by Messrs Finlay and Motherwell.
No attempt has been made, by any of these editors, to ascertain if it was
founded upon a real event. That it was, however, may be safely conjec-
tured. The present editor is, moreover, induced to suppose, from the
name of the hero, (a name formerly predominant over all others in Annan-