25 'Turn back, turn back, you ladye fair,
You know not what I see;
There is a ladye in that castle
That will burn you and me.'
'Betide me weel, betide me wae,
That ladye I will see.'
26 She took a ring from her finger,
And gave it the porter for his fee;
Says, Take you that, my good porter,
And bid the queen speak to me.
27 And when she came before the queen,
There she fell low down on her knee;
Says, There is a knight into your court
This day has robbed me.
28 'O has he robbed you of your gold,
Or has he robbed you of your fee?'
'He has not robbed me of my gold,
He has not robbed me of my fee;
He has robbed me of my maidenhead,
The fairest flower of my bodie.'
29 'There is no knight in all my court,
That thus has robbed thee,
But you'll have the truth of his right hand,
Or else for your sake he'll die:
30 'Tho it were Earl Richard, my own brother,
And, Oh, forbid that it be!'
Then sighing said the ladye fair,
I wot the same man is he.
31 The queen called on her merry men,
Even fifty men and three;
Earl Richard used to be the first man,
But now the hindmost man was he.
32 He's taken out one hundred pounds,
And told it in his glove;
Says, Take you that, my ladye fair,
And seek another love.
33 'Oh, no! oh, no!' the ladye cried,
'That's what shall never be;
I'll have the truth of your right hand,
The queen it gave to me.'
34 ['I wish I'd drunken your water, sister,
When I did drink thus of your ale,
That for a carl's fair daughter
It does me gar dree all this bale!]