XXI
‘If your father be a right good earle
As any remaines in his owne countrye,
Tush! he shall never my bodye take,
I’ll gang soe fast and over the sea.
XXII
‘If you have seven brethren,’ he sayes,
‘If they be never soe hardy and bold,
Tush! they shall never my bodye take,
I’ll gang soe fast over Scottish molde.’
XXIII
This ladye is gone to her father’s hall,
Where every body their rest did take;
For but the Earle which was her father
Lay wakin’ for his deere daughter’s sake.
XXIV
‘But who is that,’ her father can say—
‘Who is’t soe privily knows the pinn?’
‘It’s Helen, your owne deere daughter, father,
I pray you rise and lett me in!
XXV
[‘I pray you, pray you, lett me in!’—]
‘Noe, by my hood!’ quoth her father then;
‘My house thou’st never come within,
Without I had my red gold againe.’