“Away, away, thou traitor strang! 
  “Out o’ my sight soon may’st thou be! 
  “I grantit nevir a traitor’s life,
  “And now I’ll not begin wi’ thee.”

  “Ye lied[123], ye lied, now king,” he says. 
  “Altho’ a king and prince ye be! 
  For I’ve luved naething in my life,
  “I weel dare say it, but honesty—­

  “Save a fat horse,” and a fair woman,
  “Twa bonny dogs to kill a deir;
  “But England suld have found me meal and mault,
  “Gif I had lived this hundred yeir!

  “Sche suld have found me meal and mault,
  “And beif and mutton in a’ plentie;
  “But nevir a Scots wyfe could have said,
  “That e’er I skaithed her a pure flee.

  “To seik het water beneith cauld ice,
  “Surely it is a greit folie—­
  “I have asked grace at a graceless face,
  “But there is mine for my men and me!

  “But, had I kenn’d ere I cam frae hame,
  “How thou unkind wadst been to me! 
  “I wad have keepit the border side,
  “In spite of al thy force and thee.

  “Wist England’s king that I was ta’en,
  “O gin a blythe man he wad be! 
  “For anes I slew his sister’s son,
  “And on his breist bane brake a trie.”

  John wore a girdle about his middle,
  Imbroidered ower wi’ burning gold,
  Bespangled wi’ the same metal;
  Maist beautiful was to behold.

  There hang nine targats[124] at Johnie’s hat,
  And ilk are worth three hundred pound—­
  “What wants that knave that a king suld have,
  But the sword of honour and the crown!

  “O whair got thou these targats, Johnie,
  “That blink[125] sae brawly abune thy brie?”
  “I gat them in the field fechting,
  “Where, cruel king, thou durst not be.

  “Had I my horse, and harness gude,
  “And riding as I wont to be,
  “It suld have been tald this hundred yeir,
  “The meeting of my king and me!

  “God be with thee, Kirsty,[126] my brother! 
  “Lang live thou laird of Mangertoun! 
  “Lang may’st thou live on the border syde,
  “Ere thou see thy brother ride up and down!

  “And God be with thee, Kirsty, my son,
  “Where thou sits on thy nurse’s knee! 
  “But and thou live this hundred yeir,
  “Thy father’s better thou’lt nevir be.

  “Farewell! my bonny Gilnock hall,
  “Where on Esk side thou stand est stout! 
  “Gif I had lived but seven yeirs mair,
  “I wad hae gilt thee round about.”

  John murdered was at Carlinrigg,
  And all his gallant cumpanie;
  But Scotland’s heart was ne’er sae wae,
  To see sae mony brave men die—­

  Because they saved their countrey deir,
  Frae Englishmen!  Nane were sae bauld,
  Whyle Johnie lived on the border syde,
  Nane of them durst cum neir his hauld.

[Footnote 118:  Kinnen—­Rabbits.]

[Footnote 119:  Nicker—­Neigh.]