"The chains of hell, step-mother.
Alas! how I suffer."
"What dost thou wish for thy nurse, my little daughter?"
"The same hell, my nurse.
Alas! how I suffer."
A point connected with the diffusion of ballads is the extraordinarily wide adoption of certain conventional forms. One of these is the form of testamentary instructions by means of which the plot of a song is worked up to its climax. It reappears in the "Cruel Brother"—which, I suppose, is altogether to be regarded as of the Roland type:
"O what would ye leave to your father, dear?"
With a heigh-ho! and a lily gay.
"The milk-white steed that brought me here,"
As the primrose spreads so sweetly.