"If ye might have had a king's daughter,
Yer sell ye had to blame;
Ye might have taken the king's daughter,
20 For ye kend that I was nane."—
"O faulse are the vows of womankind,
But fair is their faulse bodie;
I never wad hae trodden on Irish ground,
Had it not been for love o' thee."—
25 "If I was to leave my husband dear,
And my two babes also,
O what have you to take me to,
If with you I should go?"—
"I hae seven ships upon the sea,
30 The eighth brought me to land;
With four-and-twenty bold mariners,
And music on every hand."
She has taken up her two little babes,
Kiss'd them baith cheek and chin;
35 "O fair ye weel, my ain two babes,
For I'll never see you again."
She set her foot upon the ship,
No mariners could she behold;
But the sails were o' the taffetie,
40 And the masts o' the beaten gold.
She had not sail'd a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
When dismal grew his countenance,
And drumlie grew his ee.
45 The masts that were like the beaten gold,
Bent not on the heaving seas;
But the sails, that were o' the taffetie,
Fill'd not in the east land breeze.—
They had not sailed a league, a league,
50 A league but barely three,
Until she espied his cloven foot,
And she wept right bitterlie.