No more the ghost to Margaret said, But with a grievous groan Evanished in a cloud of mist, And left her all alone, &c. No such conclusion, perhaps, was needed, for it may be suspected that the verse here printed _sixth_ is the true _finale_ of the story, accidentally transferred from its proper place. There is a slight affinity between the above and a ballad entitled _Tam Lane_, to which Scott drew special attention in his _Border Minstrelsy_, by making it a peg for eighty pages of prose dissertation _On the Fairies of Popular Superstition_. It describes a lover as lost to his mistress, by being reft away into fairy-land, and as recovered by an effort of courage and presence of mind on her part. It opens thus: O I forbid ye maidens a', That wear gowd in your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For the young Tam Lane is there. It may be remarked how often before we have seen maidens described as wearing gold in their hair. One maiden defies the prohibition: Janet has kilted her green kirtle A little aboon her knee, And she has braided her yellow hair A little aboon her bree. This, it will be observed, is all but the very same description applied to Margaret in the preceding ballad. The narrative goes on: She had na pu'd a red, red rose, A rose but barely three, Till up and starts a wee, wee man At Lady Janet's knee. Remember Sir Patrick's voyage: They had na sailed a league, a league, A league but barely three. Let it also here be noted that the eldern knight in that ballad sits 'at the king's knee,' and the nurse in _Gil Morrice_ is not very necessarily described as having 'the bairn upon her knee.' Why the knee on these occasions, if not a habitual idea of one poet?[27] [27] In _Childe Maurice_, in Percy's folio manuscript, the hero says: '... come hither, thou little foot-page, That runneth lowly by my knee.' The author of _Sir Patrick Spence_, and the other ballads in question, might have known this version, and from it caught this expression. The consequences of the visit having been fatal to Lady Janet's health and peace, she goes back to see her elfin lover, Tam Lane, who instructs her how to recover him from his bondage to the queen of fairy-land. 'The night it is good Halloween, When fairy folk will ride; And they that wad their true love win, At Miles Cross they maun bide.' 'But how shall I thee ken, Tam Lane, Or how shall I thee knaw, Amang so many unearthly knights, The like I never saw?' 'The first company that passes by, Say na, and let them gae; The next company that passes by, Say na, and do right sae; The third company that passes by, Then I'll be ane o' thae.