Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 212. From Mearnsshire.
| 1 |
The Duke o Perth had three daughters,
Elizabeth, Margaret, and fair Marie;
And Elizabeth's to the greenwud gane,
To pu the rose and the fair lilie. |
| 2 |
But she hadna pu'd a rose, a rose,
A double rose, but barely three,
Whan up and started a Loudon lord,
Wi Loudon hose, and Loudon sheen. |
| 3 |
'Will ye be called a robber's wife?
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.' |
| 4 |
'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.' |
| 5 |
Then out he's tane his little pen-knife,
And he's parted her and her sweet life,
And thrown her oer a bank o brume,
There never more for to be found. |
| 6 |
The Duke o Perth had three daughters,
Elizabeth, Margaret, and fair Marie;
And Margaret's to the greenwud gane,
To pu the rose and the fair lilie. |
| 7 |
She hadna pu'd a rose, a rose,
A double rose, but barely three,
When up and started a Loudon lord,
Wi Loudon hose, and Loudon sheen. |
| 8 |
'Will ye be called a robber's wife?
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.' |
| 9 |
'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.' |
| 10 |
Then out he's tane his little pen-knife,
And he's parted her and her sweet life,
For pu'in the rose and the fair lilie,
For pu'in them sae fair and free.' |
| 11 |
The Duke o Perth had three daughters,
Elizabeth, Margaret, and fair Marie;
And Mary's to the greenwud gane,
To pu the rose and the fair lilie. |
| 12 |
She hadna pu'd a rose, a rose,
A double rose, but barely three,
When up and started a Loudon lord,
Wi Loudon hose, and Loudon sheen. |
| 13 |
'O will ye be called a robber's wife?
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.' |
| 14 |
'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.' |
| 15 |
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. |
| 16 |
But when he saw his sister fair,
He kennd her by her yellow hair;
He calld upon his pages three,
To find this robber speedilie. |
| 17 |
'My sisters twa that are dead and gane,
For whom we made a heavy maene,
It's you that's twinnd them o their life,
And wi your cruel bloody knife. |
| 18 |
'Then for their life ye sair shall dree;
Ye sall be hangit on a tree,
Or thrown into the poisond lake,
To feed the toads and rattle-snake.' |
