‘O where have you been, my long, long love,
This long seven years and mair?’
‘O I’m come to seek my former vows
Ye granted me before.’
‘O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For they will breed sad strife;
O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For I am become a wife.’
He turned him right and round about,
And the tear blinded his e’e:’
I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground
If it had not been for thee.
‘I might hae had a king’s daughter,
Far, far beyond the sea;
I might have had a king’s daughter,
Had it not been for love o’ thee.’
‘If ye might have had a king’s daughter,
Yer sel ye had to blame;
Ye might have taken the king’s daughter,
For ye kend that I was nane.’
‘O faulse are the vows o’ womankind,But fair is their faulse bodie;
I never wad hae trodden on Irish ground,
Had it not been for love o’ thee.’
‘If I was to leave my husband dear,
And my two babes also,
O what have you to take me to,
If with you I should go?’
‘I hae seven ships upon the sea,
The eighth brought me to land;
With four-and-twenty bold...