So having chang'd her garments green, And dress'd herself like a fair queen, 190 Her father and her husband straight Both knew her, and their joys were great.
Soon they did carry the report Unto the famous German court, How the renowned English knight 195 Had found his charming lady bright.
So the Emperor and the lords of fame, With cheerful hearts they did proclaim An universal joy, to see His lady's life at liberty.
From Buchan's _Ballads of the North of Scotland_, i. 133.
Buchan complains that all other editions of this ballad "have been deprived of their original beauty and catastrophe" by officious and sacrilegious hands, and adds that his copy "is quite at variance with all its printed predecessors." In this last remark he is certainly correct, but as for his affirmation that the ballad "recounts an affair which actually took place in the reign, or rather minority, of King James VI.," we ask for some authority beyond his note to the ballad.
In another copy mentioned by Motherwell, Geordie, from jealousy, ungratefully drowns his deliverer in the sea.
"First I was lady o' Black Riggs, And then into Kincraigie; Now I am the Lady o' Gight, And my love he's ca'd Geordie.
"I was the mistress o' Pitfan, 5 And madam o' Kincraigie; But now my name is Lady Anne, And I am Gight's own lady.
"We courted in the woods o' Gight, Where birks and flow'rs spring bonny; 10 But pleasures I had never one, But sorrows thick and mony.
"He never own'd me as his wife, Nor honour'd me as his lady, But day by day he saddles the grey, 15 And rides to Bignet's lady."
When Bignet he got word of that, That Gight lay wi' his lady, He's casten him in prison strong, To ly till lords were ready. 20
"Where will I get a little wee boy, That is baith true and steady, That will run on to bonny Gight, And bring to me my lady?"
"O here am I, a little wee boy, 25 That is baith true and steady, That will run to the yates o' Gight, And bring to you your lady."
"Ye'll bid her saddle the grey, the grey, The brown rode ne'er so smartly; 30 Ye'll bid her come to Edinbro' town, A' for the life of Geordie."
The night was fair, the moon was clear, And he rode by Bevany, And stopped at the yates o' Gight, 35 Where leaves were thick and mony.