[ak] Here follows in the MS. the following erased stanza:—
My mother is a high-born dame,
And much misliketh me;
She saith my riot bringeth shame
On all my ancestry.
I had a sister once I ween,
Whose tears perhaps will flow;
But her fair face I have not seen
For three long years and moe.
Oh master dear I do not cry
From fear of wave or wind.—[MS.]
[37] [Robert was sent back from Gibraltar under the care of Joe Murray (see letter to Mr. Rushton, August 15, 1809: Letters, 1898, i. 242).]
[38] [{28}] [William Fletcher, Byron's valet. He was anything but "staunch" in the sense of the song (see Byron's letters of November 12, 1809, and June 28, 1810) (Letters, 1898, i. 246, 279); but for twenty years he remained a loyal and faithful servant, helped to nurse his master in his last illness, and brought his remains back to England.]
Enough, enough, my yeoman good.
All this is well to say;
But if I in thy sandals stood
I'd laugh to get away.—[MS. erased, D.]
For who would trust a paramour
Or e'en a wedded feere—
Though her blue eyes were streaming o'er,
And torn her yellow hair?—[MS.]