2 O word is to the kitchen gone,
And word is to the ha,
And word is to the highest towers,
Amang the nobles a'.
3 'If she be with child,' her father said,
'As woe forbid it be,
I'll put her into a prison strong,
And try the veritie.'
4 'But if she be with child,' her mother said,
'As woe forbid it be,
I'll put her intil a dungeon dark,
And hunger her till she die.'
5 Then she has wrote a braid letter,
And sealed it wi her hand,
And sent it to the merry green wood,
Wi her own boy at command.
6 The first line of the letter he read,
His heart was full of joy;
But he had not read a line past two
Till the salt tears blind his eye.
7 'O I must up to England go,
What ever me betide,
For to relieve that fair ladie
That lay last by my side.'
8 Out and spak his father then,
And he spak all in time:
Johnie, if ye to England go,
I fear ye'll neer return.
9 But out and spak his uncle then,
And he spak bitterlie:
Five hundred of my good life-guards
Shall go along with thee.
10 When they were mounted on their steeds,
They were comely to behold;
The hair that hung owre Johnie's shoulders
Was like the yellow gold.
11 The first town that they came to,
They made the bells to ring;
And when they rode the town all owre,
They made the trumpets sound.