"O ye my errand weel sall learn,
Before that I depart."—
Then drew a knife, baith lang and sharp,35
And pierced him to the heart.
Then up and got the Queen hersell,
And fell low down on her knee,
"O spare my life, now, Fause Foodrage!
For I never injured thee.40
"O spare my life, now, Fause Foodrage!
Until I lighter be!
And see gin it be lad or lass,
King Honour has left me wi'."—
"O gin it be a lass," he says,45
"Weel nursed it sall be;
But gin it be a lad bairn,
He sall be hanged hie.
"I winna spare for his tender age,
Nor yet for his hie, hie kin;50
But soon as e'er he born is,
He sall mount the gallows pin."
O four-and-twenty valiant knights
Were set the Queen to guard;
And four stood aye at her bour door,55
To keep both watch and ward.
But when the time drew near an end,
That she suld lighter be,
She cast about to find a wile,
To set her body free.60
O she has birled these merry young men
With the ale but and the wine,
Until they were a' deadly drunk
As any wild-wood swine.
"O narrow, narrow is this window,65
And big, big am I grown!"—
Yet through the might of Our Ladye,
Out at it she is gone.