“O I’ve been porter at your gates
This mair nor seven years an three,
But there is a lady at them now
The like of whom I never did see.
“For on every finger she has a ring,
An on the mid-finger she has three,
An there’s as meikle goud aboon her brow
As woud buy an earldom o lan to me.”
Then up it started Young Bicham,
An sware so loud by Our Lady,
“It can be nane but Shusy Pye
That has come oor the sea to me.”
O quickly ran he down the stair,
O fifteen steps he has made but three,
He’s tane his bonny love in his arms
An a wot he kissd her tenderly.
“O hae you tane a bonny bride?
An hae you quite forsaken me?
An hae ye quite forgotten her
That gae you life an liberty?”
She’s lookit oer her left shoulder
To hide the tears stood in her ee;
“Now fare thee well, Young Bicham,” she says,
“I’ll strive to think nae mair on thee.”
“Take back your daughter, madam,” he says,
“An a double dowry I’ll gie her wi;
For I maun marry my first true love,
That’s done and suffered so much for me.”
He’s tak his bonny love by the han,
And led her to yon fountain stane;
He’s changed her name frae Shusy Pye,
An he’s cald her his bonny love, Lady Jane.
THE LOVING BALLAD OF LORD BATEMAN
(Child, vol. ii. Cockney copy.)