What she wanted wi' Willie

She sealed it wi' a ring;

Took a thread o' silk, anither of twine, About its neck did hing.

This bird flew high, this bird flew low,
This bird flew owre the sea,

Until it entered the same chamber
Wherein was sweet Willie.

This bird flew high, this bird flew low—
Poor bird it was mista'en-

It loot the letter fa' on Baldie's breast
Instead of sweet William.

Here's a letter, William," he says,

"I'm sure it's not to me;

And gin the morn gin twelve o'clock
Your love shall married be."

"Come saddle to me my horse," he said, "The brown, and a' that's speedie,

And I'll awa' to Old England,

To bring hame my ladie."

Awa he gade, awa he rade,
Awa wi' meikle speed;

He lichtit at every twa miles' end,
Lichtit and changed his steed.

When she entered the church style,
The tear was in her e'e,

But when she entered the church door
A blythe sight did she see.

"Oh hold your hand you minister,

Hold it a little wee,

Till I speak wi' the bonnie bride,

For she's a friend to me."

“Stand off, stand off, you braw bridegroom—

Stand off a little wee;

Stand off, stand off, you braw bridegroom,

For the bride shall join wi' me.”

Up and spak the bride's father,
And an angry man was he—
"If I had pistol, powther, and lead,
And all at my command,

It's I would shoot thee stiff and dead

In the place where thou dost stand."

Up and spoke then sweet William,
And a blithe blink from his e'e;
If ye ne'er be shot till I shoot you,
Ye'se ne'er be shot for me."

"Come out, come out, my foremost man, And lift my lady on;

Commend me all to my goodmother,

At night when you gang home."

MARY HAMILTON.

Of this ballad, two complete, but somewhat differing, copies have already been published-one in the Border Minstrelsy, and the other in Mr. Sharpe's "Ballad Book;" the fragment of a third version is extant in "A North Countrie Garland," and this has subsequently appeared in "Gleanings of Old Ballads," by P. Buchan. The present copy

differs from all these, and as it shews the state in which it is frequently to be met with, as preserved by tradition, in the West of Scotland, no apology is deemed necessary for again presenting this interesting ballad to the notice of those who are curious in matters of this sort.

Sir Walter Scott inclines to ascribe the ballad to the following incident mentioned by Knox :-"In the very time of the General Assembly, there comes to public notice a haynous murther committed in the court; yea, not far from the Queen's lap; for a French woman that served in the Queen's chamber had played the whore with the Queen's own apothecary. The woman conceived and bare a child, whom, with common consent, the father and mother murthered; yet were the cries of a new-borne childe hearde, searche was made, the childe and the mother were both apprehended, and so were the man and the woman condemned to be hanged in the publick street in Edinburgh. The punishment was suitable, because the crime was haynous. But yet was not the Court purged of whores and whoredoms, which was the fountain of such enormities; for it was well knowne that shame hasted marriage betwixt John Sempill, called the Dancer,* and Mary Levingston, sirnamed the Lusty. What bruit the Maries and the rest of the dancers of the Court had the ballads of that age do witness, which we for modestie's sake omit."-History of the Reformation, p. 373. For these modest scruples in omitting the ballads of the age, the historian, it is believed, will receive but slender thanks at the hands of the poetic antiquary.

"It will readily strike the reader," adds the Editor of the Border Minstrelsy, "that the tale has suffered great alterations as handed down by tradition; the French waiting-woman being changed into Mary Hamilton, and the Queen's apothecary into Henry Darnley.

*This was the ancestor of Sir James Sempill, of Belltrees. A new edition of the poetical works of Sir James, and of his descendants, will shortly appear, uniform with Mr. Laing's beautiful editions of Mr. Montgomerie's and Alexander Scott's poems.

Yet this is less surprising when we recollect that one of the heaviest of the Queen's complaints against her ill-fated husband was his infidelity, and that even with her personal attendants."

Mr. Sharp has prefixed his set of "Marie Hamilton" with these remarks :-"It is singular that during the reign of the Czar Peter, one of his Empress's attendants, a Miss Hamilton, was executed for the murder of a natural child-not her first crime in that way as was suspected; and the Emperor, whose admiration of her beauty did not preserve her life, stood upon the scaffold till her head was struck off, which he lifted by the ears and kissed on the lips. I cannot help thinking that the two stories have been confused in the ballad, for if Marie Hamilton was executed in Scotland, it is not likely that her relations resided beyond seas; and we have no proof that Hamilton was really the name of the woman who made the slip with the Queen's apothecary." In this set of the ballad, from its direct allusion to the use of the Savin tree, a clue is, perhaps, afforded for tracing how the poor mediciner mentioned by Knox, should be implicated in the crime of Mary Hamilton. It may also be noted, as a feature in this version of the ballad, which does not occur in any heretofore printed, the unfortunate heroine's proud and indignant spurning at life after her character had been tainted by the infamy of a sentence of condemnation. In another copy of the ballad, also obtained from recitation, this sentiment is, perhaps, still more forcibly expressed; at any rate, it is more appropriate, as being addressed to the King. The whole concluding verses of this copy, differing as they somewhat do from the version adopted for a text, it has been thought worth while to preserve.

But bring to me a cup, she says,

A cup bot and a can,

And I will drink to all my friends,
And they'll drink to me again.

Here's to you all travellers,

Who travel by land or sea,