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

41 страница из 60

From out his strong Castle,

And he saw three men come posting on,

Out o’er the fern and fell.

“I wad,” said he, “they run a race,

A thousand merks I lay

Upon the wight in the red jerkin,

He wins the race this day.”

The three men burst in on his room,

“My Lord,” then each one said,

“Jock o’ the Sheugh is wounded fair,

And nine good fellows dead.”

The dark spot flew to the Baron’s cheek,

“Ye cowards, one and all!

Go, join your bloody billies then,

Whatever may befall!”

He struck each man the neck intil,

And they fell on the floor;

“To fly without a single blow,

Shows valour to be poor!

“If Belted Will should harm a hair

O’ Jock o’ the Sheugh his head,

I’ll put the Border in such a blaze,

Shall make him flee with dread.

“If Jock o’ the Sheugh hangs for this play,

The whole of the March shall weep,

No man shall waken in the morn,

That goes alive to sleep.”

They brought these words to Belted Will

As at racket-ball he played;

But the only answer he let fall,

“We’ll soon see that,” he said.

By Brampton’s town there stands an oak,