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The False Knight Outwitted

LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT—F

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Roxburghe Ballads, iii, 449.

1

‘Go fetch me some of your father's gold,
And some of your mother's fee,
And I'll carry you into the north land,
And there I'll marry thee.’

2

She fetchd him some of her father's gold,
And some of her mother's fee;
She carried him into the stable,
Where horses stood thirty and three.

3

She leapd on a milk-white steed,
And he on a dapple-grey;
They rode til they came to a fair river's side,
Three hours before it was day.

4

‘O light, O light, you lady gay,
O light with speed, I say,
For six knight's daughters have I drowned here,
And you the seventh must be.’
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5

‘Go fetch the sickle, to crop the nettle
That grows so near the brim,
For fear it should tangle my golden locks,
Or freckle my milk-white skin.’

6

He fetchd the sickle, to crop the nettle
That grows so near the brim,
And with all the strength that pretty Polly had
She pushd the false knight in.

7

‘Swim on, swim on, thou false knight,
And there bewail thy doom,
For I don't think thy cloathing too good
To lie in a watry tomb.’

8

She leaped on her milk-white steed,
She led the dapple grey;
She rid till she came to her father's house,
Three hours before it was day.

9

‘Who knocked so loudly at the ring?’
The parrot he did say;
‘O where have you been, my pretty Polly,
All this long summer's day?’

10

‘O hold your tongue, parrot,
Tell you no tales of me;
Your cage shall be made of beaten gold,
Which is now made of a tree.’

11

O then bespoke her father dear,
As he on his bed did lay:
‘O what is the matter, my parrot,
That you speak before it is day?’

12

‘The cat's at my cage, master,
And sorely frighted me,
And I calld down my Polly
To take the cat away.’
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