They goed through the wood, and through the wood,
To the end of the wood they came:
And when they came to the end of the wood
They saw the salt sea faem.
And when they saw the wee, wee boat,
That daunced on the top of the wave,
And first got in the ladye fair,
And then the knichte sae brave.
They got into the wee, wee boat
And rowed wi’ a’ their micht;
When the knichte sae brave, he turnit about,
And lookit at the ladye bricht;
He lookit at her bonnie cheik,
And hee lookit at hir twa bricht eyne,
Bot hir rosie cheik growe ghaistly pale,
And schoe seymit as scho deid had been.
The fause, fause knichte growe pale with frichte.
And his hair rose up on end,
For gane-by days cam to his mynde,
And his former love he kenned.
Then spake the ladye—“Thou, fause knichte,
Hast done to me much ill,
For didst forsake me long ago,
Bot I am constant still:
For though I ligg in the woods sae cald,
At rest I canna bee
Until I sucks the gude lyfe blude
Of the man that gart me dee.”
Hee saw hir lipps were wet wi’ blude,
And hee saw hir lufelesse eyne,
And loud hee cry’d, “get frae my syde,
Thou vampyr corps encleane!”
But no, hee is in hir magic boat,
And on the wyde, wyde sea;
And the vampyr suckis his gude lyfe blude,
Sho suckis him till hee dee.
So now beware, whoe’er you are,
That walkis in this lone wood:
Beware of that deceitfull spright,
The ghaist that suckis the blude.
The Vampire Bride, a ballad by the Hon. Henry Liddell, has considerable merit. It may be found in The Wizard of the North, The Vampire Bride, and other Poems, Blackwood, Edinburgh, and Cadell, London, 1833. These stanzas are founded upon the old tale of the knight who having placed a ring—some say his wedding-ring—around the finger of the statue of Venus whilst he is a quoiting, when he would reclaim it
