6 O when they came to the Scottish moor, A may's love whiles is easy won 'Get off o my horse, you're a brazen-faced whore, So go get you back to Northumberland!'
7 'O pity on me, O pity,' said she, 'O that my love was so easy won! Have pity on me as I had upon thee, When I loosd you out of the prison strong.'
8 'O how can I have pity on thee? O why was your love so easy won! When I have a wife and children three More worthy than a' Northumberland.'
9 'Cook in your kitchen I will be, O that my love was so easy won! And serve your lady most reverently, For I darena go back to Northumberland.'
10 'Cook in my kitchen you shall not be, Why was your love so easy won! For I will have no such servants as thee, So get you back to Northumberland.'
11 But laith was he the lassie to tyne, A may's love whiles is easy won He's hired an old horse and feed an old man, To carry her back to Northumberland.
12 O when she came her father before, A may's love whiles is easy won She fell down on her knees so low For she was the fair flower of Northumberland.
13 'O daughter, O daughter, why was ye so bold, Or why was your love so easy won, To be a Scottish whore in your fifteen year old? And you the fair flower of Northumberland!'
14 Her mother she gently on her did smile, O that her love was so easy won! 'She is not the first that the Scotts have beguild, But she's still the fair flower of Northumberland.
15 'She shanna want gold, she shanna want fee, Altho that her love was so easy won, She shanna want gold to gain a man wi, And she's still the fair flower of Northumberland.'
#a.# Buchan's MSS, II, 166. #b.# Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 208.
1 As I went by a jail-house door, Maid's love whiles is easy won I saw a prisoner standing there, 'I wish I were home in fair Scotland.
2 'Fair maid, will you pity me? Ye'll steal the keys, let me gae free: I'll make you my lady in fair Scotland.
3 'I'm sure you have no need of me, For ye have a wife and bairns three, That lives at home in fair Scotland.'
4 He swore by him that was crownd with thorn, That he never had a wife since the day he was born, But livd a free lord in fair Scotland.
5 She went unto her father's bed-head, She's stown the key o mony a lock, She's let him out o prison strong.