When he saw the lady, he said,
‘Lord may your keeper be!’—
‘What news, my pretty boy,
Hast thou to tell to me?’—
XVIII
‘Your daughter Mary orders me
As you sit in a chair of stone,
To ask you how you like the news,
Of seven to have but one?
XIX
‘Your daughter gives you her commands,
As you sit in a chair of oak,
And bids you come to her sickening,
Or her merry lake-wake.
XX
‘She gives command to her brothers
William, Ralph, and John,
[And] to her sister Betty fair,
And to her white as bone.
XXI
‘She bids her keep her maidenhead,
Be sure [to keep it lang:]
For if e’er she come into man’s bed,
The same gate will she gang.’