Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Jacobite minstrelsy

242 JACOBITE
Quo' I, " My bird, my bonnie bonnie bird,
Is that a tale ye borrow?
Or is't some words ye've learnt by rote,
Or a lilt o' dool and sorrow ?"
" Oh ! no, no, no !" the wee bird sang,
" I've flown sin' morning early ;
But sic a day o' wind and rain ! —
Oh ! wae's me for Prince Charlie !
" On hills that are by right his ain,
He roams a lonely stranger ;
On ilka hand he's press'd by want,
On ilka side by danger.
Yestreen I met him in a glen,
My heart near bursted fairly,
For sadly chang'd indeed was he. —
Oh ! wae's me for Prince Charlie !
" Dark night came on, the tempest howl'd
Out-owre the hills and valleys ;
And whare was't that your prince lay down,
Whase hame should been a palace ?
set upon his head, he was obliged to trust to the fidelity of above fifty
individuals, many of whom were in the lowest ranks of life. For some
days he appeared in woman's attire, and even passed through the
midst of his enemies unknown ; but, understanding that this disguise
would be easily detected, he was forced to assume the habit of a travel-
ling mountaineer, and then wandered about among the woods and
heaths, with a matted beard, and squalid locks, exposed to hunger,
thirst, and weariness, and in continual dread of being discovered. At
length when the opportunity arrived, which enabled him to escape to
France, and when he went on board the privateer which had been
hired by the young Sheridan, and some other Irish adherents at St.
Malo, and brought to Lochnannach, Lochiel, and the few exiles who
accompanied him in his escape, could not help remarking the change
which care, hardship, and fatigue had produced on his person. His
eye was hollow, his visage wan, his body thin, and his whole consti-
tution considerably impaired. It obviously required nothing more
than a recollection of the Prince's dejected and pitiable state at this
period, to prompt the sympathetic burthen of this song, " Oh ! wae's
me for Prince Charlie."