128 SCOTT
Yet sang she 'Brignall banks are fair,
And Greta woods are gay; I would I were with Edmund there,
To reign his Queen of May !
With burnished brand and musketoon
So gallantly you come, I read you for a bold Dragoon
That lists the tuck of drum.' 'I list no more the tuck of drum,
No more the trumpet hear; But when the beetle sounds his hum,
My comrades take the spear.
And O ! though Brignall banks be fair,
And Greta woods be gay, Yet mickle must the maiden dare
Would reign my Queen of May !
Maiden ! a nameless life I lead,
A nameless death I'll die ! The fiend, whose lantern lights the mead,
Were better mate than I ! And when I'm with my comrades met,
Beneath the Greenwood bough, What once we were we all forget,
Nor think what we are now.
Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair, And Greta woods are green,
And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer queen.'
�� �
