Читать книгу Story-Telling Ballads. Selected and Arranged for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud and for the Boys' and Girls' Own Reading онлайн

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For death shall be your bride.

“And let the Scots o’ a’ the Border

Revenge your death that dare.”

He left young Scott unto himself,

And quit his dungeon stair.

It was about the midnight time,

When his dungeon door ga’ed back;

And the sentinel who guarded it

Let in a woman in black.

“What want ye wi’ me, fair Maiden?”

The Scott o’ Harden said.

“I come to ask if thy dying wish

Can be by me obeyed?

“I am a lassie o’ the house,

And wait on Sir Gideon’s dame;

And tho’ ye have refused poor Meg,

Her prayers will be the same.”

“Why has Dame Murray sent thee here?”—

“She has a woman’s heart.

Ye have a mother and sisters twain,

From whom full soon ye part.

“If ye have anything to say,

Ye would have carried there,

I swear by all that’s good on earth,

To be your messenger.”

“Maiden,” quo’ he, and his voice was low,

“Of my mother do not speak;

I wish to die as my father’s son,

And yet her heart I break.”

“It cannot be,” then said the girl,

“Ye have rejected Meg,

Without the looking on her face?