15 'How do you like my blankets?' he says,
'Or how do you like my sheets?
Or how do you like mine own fair lady,
That lies in your arms and sleeps?'
16 'I like your blankets very well,
And far better your sheets;
But woe be to this wicked woman,
That lies in my arms and sleeps!'
17 'Rise up, rise up, my Little Musgrove,
Rise up, and put your clothes on;
It's neer be said on no other day
That I killed a naked man.
18 'There is two swords in my chamber,
I wot they cost me dear;
Take you the best, give me the warst,
We'll red the question here.'
19 The first stroke that Lord Barlibas struck,
He dang Little Musgrove to the ground;
The second stroke that Lord Barlibas gave
Dang his lady in a deadly swound.
20 'Gar mak, gar mak a coffin,' he says,
'Gar mak it wide and long,
And lay my lady at the right hand,
For she's come of the noblest kin.'
I
Motherwell's MS., p. 305, from the recitation of Rebecca Dunse, 4th May, 1825: one of her mother's songs, an old woman.
* * * * *
1 'It's gold shall be your hire,' she says,
'And silver shall be your fee,
If you will keep the secrets
Between Little Sir Grove and me.'