The space of an half hour:
Oh! that I’d made my peace secure,
Then the devil should have no power.’
BROWN ROBYN’S CONFESSION
The Text is the only one known, that printed by Buchan, Ballads of the North of Scotland, and copied into Motherwell’s MS.
The Story , relating as it does a miracle of the Virgin, is, perhaps, the only one we possess of a class which, in other lands, is so extensive. A similar Scandinavian ballad has a tragical termination, except in one version.
The casting of lots to discover the Jonah of a ship is a feature common to many literatures.
BROWN ROBYN’S CONFESSION
1.