When bells were rang, and mass was sayne,
And a' men unto bed were gane,
Cospatrick and the bonny maid,
40 Into a chamber they were laid.
"Now, speak to me, blankets, and speak to me, bed,
And speak, thou sheet, enchanted web;
And speak up, my bonny brown sword, that winna lie,
Is this a true maiden that lies by me?"—
45 "It is not a maid that you hae wedded,
But it is a maid that you hae bedded;
It is a leal maiden that lies by thee,
But not the maiden that it should be."—
O wrathfully he left the bed,
50 And wrathfully his claes on did;
And he has ta'en him through the ha',
And on his mother he did ca'.
"I am the most unhappy man,
That ever was in Christen land!
55 I courted a maiden, meik and mild,
And I hae gotten naething but a woman wi' child."—
"O stay, my son, into this ha',
And sport ye wi' your merry men a';
And I will to the secret bour,
60 To see how it fares wi' your paramour."—
The carline she was stark and sture,
She aff the hinges dang the dure;
"O is your bairn to laird or loun,
Or is it to your father's groom?"—
65 "O hear me, mother, on my knee,
Till my sad story I tell to thee:
O we were sisters, sisters seven,
We were the fairest under heaven.
"It fell on a summer's afternoon,
70 When a' our toilsome task was done,
We cast the kevils us amang,
To see which suld to the grene-wood gang.
"Ohon! alas, for I was youngest,
And aye my wierd it was the hardest!
75 The kevil it on me did fa',
Whilk was the cause of a' my woe.