Volume I Part 23 (1/2)

The captain was run thro' the thick of the thigh, And broken was his right leg bane; If he had lived this hundred years, He had never been loved by woman again.

”Hae back thy kye!” the captain said; ”Dear kye, I trow, to some they be!

For gin I suld live a hundred years, There will ne'er fair lady smile on me.”

Then word is gane to the captain's bride, Even in the bower where that she lay, That her lord was prisoner in enemy's land, Since into Tividale he had led the way.

”I wad lourd[140] have had a winding-sheet, And helped to put it ower his head, Ere he had been disgraced by the _border Scot_, Whan he ower Liddel his men did lead!”

There was a wild gallant amang us a', His name was Watty wi' the Wudspurs,[141]

Cried--”On for his house in Stanegirthside, If ony man will ride with us!”

When they cam to the Stanegirthside, They dang wi' trees, and burst the door; They loosed out a' the captain's kye, And set them forth our lads before.

There was an auld wyfe ayont the fire, A wee bit o' the captain's kin-- ”Whae dar loose out the captain's kye, Or answer to him and his men?”

”Its I, Watty Wudspurs, loose the kye!

I winna layne my name frae thee!

And I will loose out the captain's kye, In scorn of a' his men and he.”

When they cam to the fair Dodhead, They were a wellc.u.m sight to see!

For instead of his ain ten milk kye, Jamie Telfer has gotten thirty and three.

And he has paid the rescue shot, Baith wi' goud, and white monie; And at the burial o' Willie Scott, I wat was mony a weeping e'e.

[Footnote 132: _Ranshackled_--Ransacked.]

[Footnote 133: _Gryming_--Sprinkling.]

[Footnote 134: _Ca's_--Calves.]

[Footnote 135: _Minnie_--Mother.]

[Footnote 136: _Outspeckle_.--Laughing-stock.]

[Footnote 137: _Toom_--Empty.]

[Footnote 138: _Knapscap_--Headpiece.]

[Footnote 139: _The Dinlay_--is a mountain in Liddesdale.]

[Footnote 140: _Lourd_--Rather.]

[Footnote 141: _Wudspurs_--Hotspur, or Madspur.]

NOTES ON JAMIE TELFER OF THE FAIR DODHEAD.