"Often have I dress'd my queen,
"And often made her bed;
"But now I've gotten for my reward
"The gallows tree to tread.
"I charge ye all, ye mariners,
"When ye sail ower the faem,
"Let neither my father nor mother get wit,
"But that I'm coming hame.
"I charge ye all, ye mariners,
"That sail upon the sea,
"Let neither my father nor mother get wit
"This dog's death I'm to die.
"For if my father and mother got wit,
"And my bold brethren three,
"O, mickle wad be the gude red blude,
"This day wad be spilt for me!
"O little did my mother ken,
"The day she cradled me,
"The lands I was to travel in,
"Or the death I was to die!"
NOTES
ON
THE QUEEN'S MARIE.
When she cam to the Netherbow port.—P. [93], v. 1.
The Netherbow port was the gate which divided the city of Edinburgh from the suburb, called the Canongate. It had towers and a spire, which formed a fine termination to the view from the Cross. The gate was pulled down, in one of those fits of rage for indiscriminate destruction, with which the magistrates of a corporation are sometimes visited.