And he is, of course, acquitted.
In Fone's version she appears in dream to her lover as a swan, and comforts him, but the sequel of the story he could not recall.
The ballad is found in a fragmentary condition in Kent—
"O cursed be my uncle for lendin' of a gun.
For I've bin' and shot my true love in the room of a swan."
And the apparition of the girl says—
"With my apron tied over me, I 'peared like unto a swan,
And underneath the green tree while the showers did come on."
This was heard in 1884, sung by a very old man at a harvest supper at Haverstall Doddington, near Faversham.
The transformation of the damsel into a swan stalking into the Court is an early feature, and possibly the ballad may be a degraded form of a very ancient piece.
This ballad, arranged as a song with accompaniment by Mr. Ferris Tozer, has been published by Messrs. Weeks.
Mr. Sharp has given the song to a different air in his "Folk-Songs from Somerset," No. 16.