The hall was furnished in a manner equally grand, and at one end of it was a glorious couch of velvet, silk and gold, and there sate Burd Ellen, combing her golden hair with a silver comb. And when she saw Childe Rowland she stood up and said:

“God pity ye, poor luckless fool,

What have ye here to do?

“Hear ye this, my youngest brother,

Why didn’t ye bide at home?

Had you a hundred thousand lives

Ye couldn’t spare any a one.

“But sit ye down; but woe, O, woe,

That ever ye were born,

For come the King of Elfland in,