But when they cam to St Mary’s kirk,
   There stude spearmen, all on a raw;
  And up and started Lord William,
   The chieftane amang them a’.

  “Set down, set down the bier,” he said;
   “Let me looke her upon:” 
  But as soon as Lord William touched her hand,
   Her colour began to come.

  She brightened like the lily flower,
   Till her pale colour was gone;
  With rosy cheik, and ruby lip,
   She smiled her love upon.

  “A morsel of your bread, my lord,
   “And one glass of your wine: 
  “For I hae fasted these three lang days,
   “All for your sake and mine.

  “Gae hame, gae hame, my seven bauld brothers! 
   “Gae hame and blaw your horn! 
  “I trow you wad hae gien me the skaith,
   “But I’ve gien you the scorn.

  “Commend me to my grey father,
   “That wish’d, my saul gude rest;
  “But wae be to my cruel step-dame,
   “Gar’d burn me on the breast.”

  “Ah! woe to you, you light woman! 
   “An ill death may you die! 
  “For we left father and sisters at hame
   “Breaking their hearts for thee.”

[Footnote A:  Cosh—­Quiet.]

[Footnote B:  Brash—­Sickness.]

NOTES ON THE GAY GOSS HAWK.

  The red, that’s on my true love’s cheik,
  Is like blood drops on the snaw.—­P. 362. v, 5.

This simile resembles a passage in a MS. translation of an Irish Fairy tale, called The Adventures of Faravla, Princess of Scotland, and Carral O’Daly, Son of Donogho More O’Daly, Chief Bard of Ireland.

“Faravla, as she entered her bower, cast her looks upon the earth, which was tinged with the blood of a bird which a raven had newly killed; ‘Like that snow,’ said Faravla, ’was the complexion of my beloved, his cheeks like the sanguine traces thereon; whilst the raven recals to my memory the colour of his beautiful locks.”

There is also some resemblance, in the conduct of the story, betwixt the ballad and the tale just quoted.  The Princess Faravla, being desperately in love with Carral O’Daly, dispatches in search of him a faithful confidant, who, by her magical art, transforms herself into a hawk, and, perching upon the windows of the bard, conveys to him information of the distress of the princess of Scotland.

In the ancient romance of Sir Tristrem, the simile of the “blood drops upon snow” likewise occurs: 

  A bride bright thai ches
  As blod open snoweing.

BROWN ADAM.

There is a copy of this Ballad in Mrs BROWN’S Collection.  The Editor has seen one, printed on a single sheet.  The epithet, “Smith,” implies, probably, the sirname, not the profession, of the hero, who seems to have been an outlaw There is, however, in Mrs BROWN’S copy, a verse of little merit here omitted, alluding to the implements of that occupation.