XVIII
‘Away, away, thou traitor strang!
Out o’ my sight soon mayst thou be!
I grantit never a traitor’s life,
And now I’ll not begin wi’ thee.’—
XIX
‘Ye lied, ye lied, now, King,’ he says,
‘Altho’ a King and Prince ye be!
For I’ve luved naething in my life,
I weel dare say it, but honesty:
XX
‘Save a fat horse, and a fair woman,
Twa bonny dogs to kill a deir;
But England suld have found me meal and mault,
Gif I had lived this hundred yeir!
XXI
‘She suld have found me meal and mault,
And beef and mutton in a’ plentie;
But never a Scots wyfe could have said
That e’er I skaith’d[551] her a puir flee.
XXII
‘To seik het water beneith cauld ice,
Surely it is a greit folie—
I have asked grace at a graceless face,
But there is nane for my men and me!