O he's gone to yon tavern house, O he's gone to yon tavern house, O, woe be unto woman's wit, She promised to come hersel' But she sent three men to slay me! Get up, get up, now sister Ann, I fear we've wrought you sorrow; Get up, ye'll find your true love slain, Among the banks of Yarrow. She sought him east, she sought him west, She sought him braid and narrow, "Till in the clintin of a craig She found him drown'd in Yarrow. She's ta'en three links of her yellow hair, That hung down lang and yellow, And she's tied it about sweet Willie's waist, An' drawn him out of Yarrow. * I made my love a suit of clothes, ROB ROY. Tune-A RUDE SET OF MILL MILL O Rob Roy from the Highlands cam Unto the Lawlan' border, To steal awa a gay ladie, To haud his house in order: He cam owre the lock o' Lynn, Twenty men his arms did carry; Himsel gaed in an' fand her out, Protesting he would marry. O will ye gae wi' me, he says, You love me for my money. But he set her on a coal-black steed, An' he's awa to the Highland hills, Whare her frien's they canna find her. [The song went on to narrate the forcing her to bed; when the tnne changes to something like "Jenny dang the weaver."] Rob Roy was my father ca'd, Be content, be content, Be content to stay, ladie; He was a hedge unto his frien's, I'm as bold, I'm as bold, I'm as bold, an' more, ladie; He that daurs dispute my word Shall feel my guid claymore, lady.* * The history of Rob Roy the reader may find at great length in Maclaurin's Criminal Trials. He was the son of the Rob Roy Macgregor who figures in the Rebellion, 1715. The short account of him is this. He was outlawed by sentence of the Court of Justiciary in Scotland, in 1736, for not appearing to stand trial for the murder of a man of the name of Maclaren. In this state of outlawry, he formed the mad and desperate project of carrying off and forcibly accomplishing a marriage with Jane Key, heiress of Edinbelly, and thus getting possession of her estate. He and his brother James Macgregor, at the head of a band of armed ruffians, entered her mother's house, dragged her out, and tying her, hand and foot with ropes, laid her across a horse, and brought her in this situation to the house of one of their clan, in a wild and sequestered part of the mountains of Argyleshire; where, after some show of a marriage ceremony, she was put to bed, and forcibly compelled to submit to his embraces. On a discovery of the place of her concealment she was rescued by her relations, and Rob Roy, and his brother James, were tried capitally for the crime. James made his escape from prison before sentence, was outlawed in consequence, and some years afterwards obtained a pardon. Rob Roy was condemned and executed, February, 1753. |