The English and Scottish Popular Ballads :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 75, Abbotsford. Communicated to Scott November 6, 1803, by Bruce Campbell, Sornbeg, Galston, Ayrshire, through David Boyle, Advocate, afterwards Lord Justice General of Scotland.

1

It fell about the Martinmass time,
When the wind blew shill and cald,
That Adam McGordon said to his men,
Where will we get a hall?

2

‘There is a hall here near by,
Well built with lime and stone;
There is a lady there within
As white as the [OMITTED] bone.’

3

‘Seven year and more this lord and I
Has had a deadly feud,
And now, since her good lord's frae hame,
His place to me she'll yield.’

4

She looked oer her castle-wall,
And so she looked down,

And saw Adam McGordon and his men
Approaching the wood-end.

5

‘Steik up, steik up my yett,’ she says,
‘And let my draw-bridge fall;
There is meickle treachery
Walking about my wall.’

6

She had not the sentence past,
Nor yet the word well said,
When Adam McGordon and his men
About the walls were laid.

7

She looked out at her window,
And then she looked down,
And then she saw Jack, her own man,
Lifting the pavement-stane.

8

‘Awa, awa, Jack my man!
Seven year I paid you meat and fee,
And now you lift the pavement-stane
To let in the low to me.’

9

‘I yield, I yield, O lady fair,
Seven year ye paid me meat and fee;
But now I am Adam McGordon's man,
I must either do or die.’

10

‘If ye be Adam McGordon's man,
As I true well ye be,
Prove true unto your own master,
And work your will to me.’

11

‘Come down, come down, my lady Campbell,
Come down into my hand;
Ye shall lye all night by my side,
And the morn at my command.’

12

‘I winna come down,’ this lady says,
‘For neither laird nor lown,
Nor to no bloody butcher's son,
The Laird of Auchindown.

13

‘I wald give all my kine,’ she says,
‘So wald I fifty pound,
That Andrew Watty he were here;
He would charge me my gun.

14

‘He would charge me my gun,
And put in bullets three,
That I might shoot that cruel traitor
That works his wills on me.’

15

He shot in, and [s]he shot out,
The value of an hour,
Until the hall Craigie North
Was like to be blawn in the air.

16

He fired in, and she fired out,
The value of houris three,
Until the hall Craigie North
The reik went to the sea.

17

‘O the frost, and ae the frost,
The frost that freezes fell!
I cannot stay within my bower,
The powder it blaws sae bald.’

18

But then spake her oldest son,
He was both white and red;
‘O mither dear, yield up your house!
We'll all be burnt to deed.’

19

Out then spake the second son,
He was both red and fair;
‘O brother dear, would you yield up your house,
And you your father's heir!’

20

Out then spake the little babe,
Stood at the nurse's knee;
‘O mither dear, yield up your house!
The reik will worry me.’

21

Out then speaks the little nurse,
The babe upon her knee;
‘O lady, take from me your child!
I'll never crave my fee.’

22

‘Hold thy tongue, thou little nurse,
Of thy prating let me bee;
For be it death or be it life,
Thou shall take share with me.

23

‘I wald give a' my sheep,’ she says,
‘T[hat] [OMITTED] yon [OMITTED] s[ha],
I had a drink of that wan water
That runs down by my wa.’