“Gar douk, gar douk,"[B] the king
he cried,
“Gar douk for gold and fee;
“O wha will douk for Erl Richard’s
sake,
“Or wha will douk for me?”
They douked in at ae weil-head,[C]
And out ay at the other;
“We can douk nae mair for Erl Richard,
“Although he were our brother.”
It fell that, in that ladye’s castle,
The king was boun’ to
bed;
And up and spake the popinjay,
That flew abune his head.
“Leave off your douking on the day,
“And douk upon the night;
“And where that sackless[D] knight
lies slain,
“The candles will burn
bright.”
“O there’s a bird within this
bower,
“That sings baith sad
and sweet;
“O there’s a bird within your
bower,
“Keeps me frae my night’s
sleep.”
They left the douking on the day,
And douked upon the night;
And, where that sackless knight lay slain,
The candles burned bright.
The deepest pot in a’ the linn,
They fand Erl Richard in;
A grene turf tyed across his breast,
To keep that gude lord down.
Then up and spake the king himsell,
When he saw the deadly wound—
“O wha has slain my right-hand man,
“That held my hawk and hound?”
Then up and spake the popinjay,
Says—“What needs
a’ this din?
“It was his light lemman took his
life,
“And hided him in the linn.”
She swore her by the grass, sae grene,
Sae did she by the corn,
She had na’ seen him, Erl Richard,
Since Moninday at morn.
“Put na the wite on me,” she
said;
“It was my may Catherine.”
Then they hae cut baith fern and thorn,
To burn that maiden in.
It wadna take upon her cheik,
Nor yet upon her chin;
Nor yet upon her yellow hair,
To cleanse the deadly sin.
The maiden touched the clay-cauld corpse,
A drap it never bled;
The ladye laid her hand on him,
And soon the ’ground
was red.
Out they hae ta’en her, may Catherine,
And put her mistress in:
The flame tuik fast upon her cheik,
Tuik fast upon her chin,
Tuik fast upon her faire bodye—
She burn’d like hollins
green.[E]
[Footnote A: Birled—Plied.]
[Footnote B: Douk—Dive.]
[Footnote C: Weil-heid—Eddy.]
[Footnote D: Sackless—Guiltless.]
[Footnote E: Hollins green—Green holly.]
NOTES ON EARL RICHARD.
The candles burned bright.—P. 403. v. 4.