Lord Gregory tore his yellow hair, And made a heavy moan; Fair Annie's corpse lay at his feet, Her bonny young son was gone. 140 O cherry, cherry was her cheek, And gowden was her hair; But clay-cold were her rosy lips-- Nae spark o' life was there. And first he kiss'd her cherry cheek, 145 And syne he kiss'd her chin, And syne he kiss'd her rosy lips-- There was nae breath within. "O wae betide my cruel mother! An ill death may she die! 150 She turn'd my true love frae my door, Wha came sae far to me. "O wae betide my cruel mother! An ill death may she die! She turn'd fair Annie frae my door, 155 Wha died for love o' me." THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY. _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, iii. 3. This ballad, of which more than thirty versions have been published in the Northern languages, is preserved in English in several forms, all of them more or less unsatisfactory. Of these the present copy comes nearest to the pure original, as it is found in Danish. The next best is _The Brave Earl Brand and The King of England's Daughter_, recently printed for the first time in Bell's _Ballads of the Peasantry_, and given at the end of this volume. _Erlinton_ (vol. iii. 220) is much mutilated, and has a perverted conclusion, but retains a faint trace of one characteristic trait of the ancient ballad, which really constitutes the turning point of the story, but which all the others lack. (See _Erlinton_.) A fragment exists in the Percy MS., of which we can only say that if it much resembled Percy's _Child of Elle_ (which it cannot), it might without loss be left undisturbed forever. In the only remaining copy Robin Hood appears as the hero. (See vol. v. p. 334.) It is of slight value, but considerably less insipid than the _Child of Elle_. Motherwell (_Minstrelsy_, p. 180) has given a few variations to Scott's ballad, but they are of no importance.--Of the corresponding Danish ballad, _Ribolt og Guldborg_, Grundtvig has collected more than twenty versions, some of them ancient, many obtained from recitation, and eight of the kindred _Hildebrand og Hilde_. There have also been printed of the latter, three versions in Swedish, and of the former, three in Icelandic, two in Norse, and seven in Swedish. (_Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser_, ii. 308-403, 674-81.) Jamieson has translated an inferior copy of the Danish ballad in _Illustrations of North. Antiq._, p. 317. "The ballad of _The Douglas Tragedy_," says Scott, "is one of the few (?) to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality.