Ancient Scottish ballads, recovered from tradition, and never before ...

215
"O will ye be called a robber's wile?
Or will ye be stickit wi' my bloody knife?
For pu'in the rose and the fair lilie,
For pu'in them sae fair and free."
" Before I'll be called a robber's wife,
I'll rather be stickit wi' your bloody knife,
For pu'in the rose and the fair lilie,
For pu'in them sae fair and free."
But just as he took out his knife,
To tak' frae her, her ain sweet life,
Her brother John cam ryding bye,
And this bloody robber he did espy.
But when he saw his sister fair,
He kenn'd her by her yellow hair,
He call'd upon his pages three,
To find this robber speedilie.
"My sisters twa that are dead and gane,
For whom we made a heavy maene,*
It's you that's twinn'df them o' their life,
And wi' your cruel bloody knife.
* Maene—lamentation, f Twinn'd—deprived.