As far as can be made out, Livingston and Seaton engage themselves to play against one another at some game, the victor expecting to stand the better in the eyes of a lady. They then proceed to Edinburgh castle, where a lady, whose 'gowns seem like green,' marshals the company in pairs, and chooses Livingston for her own partner. This preference enrages Seaton, who challenges Livingston to fight with him the next day. Up to this point the pairing may have been for a dance, or what not, but now we are told that Livingston and the fair dame are laid in the same bed, and further on that they were wedded that same night. In the morning Livingston arms himself for his fight; he declines to let his lady dress herself in man's clothes and fight in his stead. On his way 'to plain fields' a witch warns him that she has had the dream which Sweet William dreams in No, 74, and others elsewhere. Livingston is 'slain,' but for all that stands presently bleeding by his lady's knee. She begs him to hold out but half an hour, and every leech in Edinburgh shall come to him (see No, 88, A 12, etc.). He orders his lands to be dealt as in 'Bonny Bee Horn'.(No, 92). The lady will now do for his sake what other ladies would not be equal to (what nevertheless many other ballad-ladies have undertaken, as in No, 69 and elsewhere). When seven years are near an end her heart breaks.
This ballad, or something like it, was known at the end of the eighteenth century.
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