195 About the dead hour o' the night,
She heard the bridles ring;
And Janet was as glad o' that
As any earthly thing.
Will o' Wisp before them went,
200 Sent forth a twinkling light;
And soon she saw the Fairy bands
All riding in her sight.
And first gaed by the black black steed,
And then gaed by the brown;
205 But fast she gript the milk-white steed,
And pu'd the rider down.
She pu'd him frae the milk-white steed,
And loot the bridle fa';
And up there raise an erlish cry—
They shaped him in fair Janet's arms,
An esk, but and an adder;
She held him fast in every shape—
To be her bairn's father.
215 They shaped him in her arms at last,
A mother-naked man:
She wrapt him in her green mantle,
And sae her true love wan!
Up then spake the Queen o' Fairies,
220 Out o' a bush o' broom—
"She that has borrow'd young Tamlane,
Has gotten a stately groom."—
Up then spake the Queen o' Fairies,
Out o' a bush o' rye—
225 "She's ta'en awa the bonniest knight
In a' my cumpanie.
"But had I kenn'd, Tamlane," she says,
"A lady wad borrow'd thee—
I wad ta'en out thy twa grey een,
230 Put in twa een o' tree.