297

EARL ROTHES

‘Earl Rothes,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 333.

Lady Ann has an adulterous connection with Earl Rothes, and her youthful brother seeks to sunder it. He offers to pay a tocher for her if she will forsake the earl’s company; to keep her in his castle till she is safely brought to bed, and make her a marquis’s lady; she rejects all his offers with scorn. The boy declares that when he is old enough to wear a sword he will thrust it through Earl Rothes for using his sister so badly.

‘O Earl Rothes, an thou wert mine,

And I were to be thy ladie,

I wad drink at the beer, and tipple at the wine,

And be my bottle with any.’

‘Hold thy tongue, sister Ann,’ he says,

‘Thy words they are too many;

What wad ye do wi sae noble a lord,

When he has so noble a ladie?

‘O I’ll pay you your tocher, Lady Ann,

Both in gear and money,

If ye’ll forsake Earl Rothes’s companie,

And mind that he has a ladie.’

‘I do not value your gold,’ she says,

‘Your gear it’s no sae readie;

I’ll neer forsake Earl Rothes’s companie,

And I don’t gie a fig for his ladie.’

‘I’ll keep ye i the castle, Lady Ann,

O servants ye shall hae monie;

I’ll keep ye till ye’re safely brocht to bed,

And I’ll mak you a marquis’s ladie.’

‘I do not value your castle,’ she says,

‘Your servants are no sae readie;

Earl Rothes will keep me till I’m brocht to bed,

And he’ll mak me a marquis’s ladie.’

‘Woe be to thee, Earl Rothes,’ he says,

‘And the mark o the judge be upon thee,

For the using o this poor thing sae,

For the using my sister so badly.

‘When I’m come to the years of a man,

And able a sword to carry,

I’ll thrust it thro Earl Rothes’ bodie

For the using my sister sae basely.

‘Fare thee well, Lady Ann,’ he says,

‘No longer will I tarry;

You and I will never meet again,

Till we meet at the bonny town o Torry.’