When the lady gaes oer the pier of Leith, comes to Edinburgh, to the West Port, the Canongate, the Parliament Close, the tolbooth-stair, the prison-door, she deals out crowns and ducatoons, makes the handfus o red gold fly, among the numerous poor, and bids them pray for Geordie. She has the prudence, in #G# 5, to do the same among the nobles many at the tolbooth-gate, that they may plead for Geordie. The block and axe are in sight, and Geordie, in chains, is coming down the stair, #A#; the napkin is laid over his face, and the gallows is making ready, #B# (so #F#, but put further on), his head is to go, #C#; the rest of the nobles sit (stand) hat on head, but hat in hand stands Geordie, #D#, #E#, #H#, #I#, #J#, #L#. The lady makes a plea for her husband’s life. She is the mother of many children (the tale ranges from six to eleven) and is going with yet another, #B#, #C#, #K#, #N#. She would bear them all over again for the life of Geordie, #C#, #D#, or see them all streekit before her eyes, #B#; and for his life she will part with all that she owns, #A# 10, #B# 11, 16, #D# 14. The king in #A# is moved by neither of these appeals. The number of her children is so far from affecting him that he orders the heading-man to make haste. But the Gordons collect and pass the word to be ready. There would have been bloody bouks upon the green.[90] The lady is told that by paying a good round sum, 5,000 (500) pounds, 10,000 (1000) crowns, she can redeem Geordie’s life. An aged lord prompts the king to offer these terms in #A#; in the other versions, they are proposed directly; by the king himself, #F#, #G#, #I#; by the queen, #B#, #I#; by the good Argyle, #D#; by an English lord, #H#. The bystanders contribute handsomely; she pays the ransom down, and wins the life of Geordie, #A#-#D#, #G#-#J#. In #E#, which is a mere fragment, there is no fine or collection: a bold baron says, such true lovers shall not be parted, and she gets her Geordie forthwith. In #F#, no contribution is required, because the lady, after scattering the red gold among the poor, is still in a condition to produce the five thousand pound from her own pocket. For this she receives a ‘remit,’ with which she hies to the gallows and stops the impending execution. In #I b#, which is defective, the money collected is to pay the jailer’s fee. After the discharge has been secured (in two or three copies earlier), Lord Corstorph, #B a#, the Laird o Logie, #B b#, an Irish lord, #C#, #H#, an English lord, #D#, the _gleid_ Argyle, #I#, Lord Montague, #J#, expresses a wish that Geordie’s head were off, because he might have succeeded to the lady. The lady checks this aspiration, sometimes in very abusive language.