The Daemon Lover (Child #243)

"O where have you been, my dearest dear,
These seven long years and mair?"
"O I'm come to seek my former vows
Ye granted me before. "

"O hold your tongue of your former vows
For they will breed sad strife;
O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For I am become a wife."

"I might have had a king's daughter
Far, far beyond the sea;
I might have had a king's daughter
Had it not been for love of thee."

"If ye might have had a king's daughter,
Yer self ye had to blame;
Ye might have taken the king's daughter,
Fer ye kend that I was nane."

"I have seven ships upon the sea,
The eighth brought me to land;
With four-and-twenty bold mariners
And music on every hand."

She has taken up her two little babes,
Kissed them baith cheek and chin:
"O fare ye well, my ain two babes,
For I'll ne'er see you again."

She set her foot upon the ship,
No mariners could she behold;
But the sails were of the taffetie,
And the masts of the beaten gold.

She had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
When dismal grew his countenance
And drumlie grew his e'e.

The masts that were like the beaten gold
Bent not on the heaving seas;
And the sails that were o'the taffetie
Filled not in the eastland breeze.

They had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
Until she espied his cloven foot,
And she wept right bitterlie.

"O hold your tongue of your weeping," says he
"Of you weeping now let me be;
I will show you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy."

And aye when she turned her round about,
Aye, taller he seemed to be;
Until that the tops of the gallant ship
Nae taller were than he.

The clouds grew dark and the wind grew loud,
And levin filled her e'e;
And waesome wailed the snow-white sprites
Upon the girlie sea.

He strack the tapmast wi' his hand
The foremast wi' his knee
And he brake the gallant ship in twain
And sank her in the sea.