* * * * * * *
"But awa', awa', my bald brethren!
Awa', and mak nae din;
For I'm ane o' the sickest ladies this nicht
That e'er lay a bower within."50
"O tell us, tell us, May Margaret,
And dinna to us len,
O wha is that, May Margaret,
You and the wa' between?"
"O it is my bower-maiden," she says,55
"As sick as sick can be;
O it is my bower maiden," she says,
And she's thrice as sick as me."
"We hae been east, and we've been west,
And low beneath the moon;60
But a' the bower-women e'er we saw
Hadna goud buckles in their shoon."
Then up and spak her eldest brither,
Ay in ill time spak he:
"It is Clerk Saunders, your true love,65
And never mat I the,
But for this scorn that he has done,
This moment he sall die."
But up and spak her youngest brother,
Ay in good time spak he:70
"O but they are a gudelie pair!—
True lovers an ye be,
The sword that hangs at my sword belt
Sall never sinder ye!"
Syne up and spak her nexten brother,75
And the tear stood in his ee:
"You've lo'ed her lang, and lo'ed her weel,
And pity it wad be,
The sword that hangs at my sword-belt
Shoud ever sinder ye!"80
But up and spak her fifthen brother,
"Sleep on your sleep for me;
But we baith sall never sleep again,
For the tane o' us sall die!"