"So well do I love your errand, my master, But far better do I love my life; O would ye have me go to Lord Barnard's castel, To betray away his wife?" 20 "O don't I give you meat," he says, "And don't I pay you fee? How dare you stop my errand?" he says; "My orders you must obey." O when he came to Lord Barnard's castel, 25 He tinkled at the ring; Who was as ready as Lord Barnard[L27] himself To let this little boy in? "Here is a glove, a glove," he says, "Lined with the silver gris; 30 You are bidden to come to the merry green wood, To speak to Child Nory. "Here is a ring, a ring," he says, "It's all gold but the stane: You are bidden to come to the merry green wood, 35 And ask the leave o' nane." Lord Barnard he was standing by, And an angry man was he: "O little did I think there was a lord in this world My lady loved but me!" 40 O he dressed himself in the Holland smocks, And garments that was gay; And he is away to the merry green wood, To speak to Child Nory. Child Noryce sits on yonder tree, 45 He whistles and he sings: "O wae be to me," says Child Noryce, "Yonder my mother comes!" Child Noryce he came off the tree, His mother to take off the horse: 50 "Och alace, alace," says Child Noryce, "My mother was ne'er so gross." Lord Barnard he had a little small sword, That hung low down by his knee; He cut the head off Child Noryce, 55 And put the body on a tree. And when he came to his castel, And to his lady's hall, He threw the head into her lap, Saying, "Lady, there is a ball!" 60 She turned up the bloody head, She kissed it frae cheek to chin: "Far better do I love this bloody head Than all my royal kin. "When I was in my father's castell, 65 In my virginitie, There came a lord into the North, Gat Child Noryce with me." "O wae be to thee, Lady Margaret," he said, "And an ill death may you die; 70 For if you had told me he was your son, He had ne'er been slain by me." 27. This unquestionably should be Lady Barnard, instead of her lord. See third stanza under. M. CLERK SAUNDERS. From the _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, (iii. 175,) where it was first published. It was "taken from Mr. Herd's MSS., with several corrections from a shorter and more imperfect copy in the same volume, and one or two conjectural emendations in the arrangement of the stanzas."