20 'An asking,' said the lady gay,
'An asking ye'll grant me;'
'Ask on, ask on,' said Sir Colvin,
'What may your asking be?'
21 'Ye'll gie me hame my wounded knight,
Let me fare on my way;
And I'se neer be seen on Elrick's hill,
By night, nor yet by day;
And to this place we'll come nae mair,
Coud we win safe away.
22 'To trouble any Christian one,
Lives in the righteous law,
We'll come nae mair unto this place,
Coud we win safe awa.'
23 'O yese get hame your wounded knight,
Ye shall not gang alane;
But I maun hae a wad o him,
Before that we twa twine.'
24 Sir Colvin being a book-learnd man,
Sae gude in fencing tee,
He's drawn a stroke behind his hand,
And followed in speedilie.
25 Sae fierce a stroke Sir Colvin's drawn,
And followed in speedilie,
The knight's brand and sword hand
In the air he gard them flee.
26 It flew sae high into the sky,
And lighted on the ground;
The rings that were on these fingers
Were worth five hundred pound.
27 Up he has taen that bluidy hand,
Set it before the king,
And the morn it was Wednesday,
When he married his daughter Jean.
Motherwell, who cites a manuscript of Buchan, prints the first three stanzas and the last with some variations: Introduction, p. lxvi, note **. The ballad is not in Buchan's two manuscript volumes.