'Ask on, ask on, daughter,' he said; 'And aye weel answered ye shall be; For I'll mak a vow, and keep it true-- James Hatelie shall not hanged be.' 'Another asken I ask, father; Another asken I ask of thee-- Let Fenwick and Hatelie go to the sword, And let them try their veritie.' 'Ask on, ask on, daughter,' he said; 'And aye weel answered you shall be; For before the morn at twelve o'clock, They both at the point of the sword shall be.' James Hatelie was eighteen years of age, False Fenwick was thirty years and three; He lap about, and he strack about, And he gave false Fenwick wounds three. 'Oh, hold your hand, James Hatelie,' he said; 'And let my breath go out and in; Were it not for the spilling of my noble blood And the shaming of my noble kin. 'Oh, hold your hand, James Hatelie,' he said; Oh, hold your hand, and let me be; For I'm the man that stole the jewels, And a shame and disgrace it was to me.' Then up bespoke an English lord, I wat but he spoke haughtilie: 'I would rather have lost all my lands, Before they had not hanged James Hatelie.' Then up bespoke a good Scotch lord, I wat a good Scotch lord was he: 'I would rather have foughten to the knees in blood, Than they had hanged James Hatelie.' Then up bespoke the king's eldest son: 'Come in, James Hatelie, and dine with me; For I'll make a vow, and I'll keep it true-- You'se be my captain by land and sea.' Then up bespoke the king's eldest daughter: 'Come in, James Hatelie, and dine with me; For I'll make a vow, and I'll keep it true-- I'll never marrie a man but thee.' Here is love, and here is innocence in difficulties--two things of high moral interest; yet how homely is the whole narration; how unlike the strains of the ballads which have been passed before the reader's view! And be it observed, the theory as to our ballads is, that they have been transmitted from old time, undergoing modifications from the minds of nurses, and other humble reciters, as they came along. If so, they ought to have presented the same plebeian strain of ideas and phraseology as _James Hatelie_; but we see they do not: they are, on the contrary, remarkably poetical, pure, and dignified.