"And do you see yon pretty little girl,
That's a' beclad in green?
She's a friar's daughter, oure in France,
And I hoped to see her a queen.
"O wasna that a sin, and a very great sin!65
But I hope it will pardoned be:"
"Amen! Amen!" quoth the Earl Marshall,
And a fear't heart still had he.
"O do you see yon other little boy,
That's playing at the ba'?70
He is King Henry's only son,
And I like him warst of a'.
"He's headed like a buck," she said,
"And backed like a bear,"—
"Amen!" quoth the King, in the King's ain voice,75
"He shall be my only heir."
The King look'd over his left shoulder,
An angry man was he:
"An it werna for the oath I sware,
Earl Marshall, thou shouldst dee."80
AULD MAITLAND.
From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, i. 306.
"This ballad, notwithstanding its present appearance, has a claim to very high antiquity. It has been preserved by tradition; and is, perhaps, the most authentic instance of a long and very old poem, exclusively thus preserved. It is only known to a few old people upon the sequestered banks of the Ettrick, and is published, as written down from the recitation of the mother of Mr. James Hogg, who sings, or rather chants it, with great animation. She learned the ballad from a blind man, who died at the advanced age of ninety, and is said to have been possessed of much traditionary knowledge. Although the language of this poem is much modernized, yet many words, which the reciters have retained without understanding them, still preserve traces of its antiquity. Such are the words springals (corruptedly pronounced springwalls), sowies, portcullize, and many other appropriate terms of war and chivalry, which could never have been introduced by a modern ballad-maker[?]. The incidents are striking and well managed; and they are in strict conformity with the manners of the age in which they are placed.