ree score is sunk, and three score dead at sea,
And the Lowlands of Holland has twin'd my love and me.

2.
'My love he built another ship, and set her on the main,
And nane but twenty mariners for to bring her hame;
But the weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout,
My love then and his bonny ship turn'd withershins about.

3.
'There shall neither coif come on my head nor comb come in my hair;
There shall neither coal nor candle-light shine in my bower mair;
Nor will I love another one until the day I die,
For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'

4.
'O had your tongue, my daughter dear, be still and be content,
There are mair lads in Galloway, ye neen nae sair lament:'
'O there is none in Gallow, there's none at a' for me,
For I never lov'd a love but one, and he's drowned in the sea.'

[Annotations:
2.3: 'rout,' roar.
2.4: 'withershins,' backwards, the wrong way, the opposite of the
desired way. Often = contrary to the way of the sun, but not
necessarily. See note on etymology, Chambers, _Mediaeval Stage_,
i. 129.
3.1: 'coif,' cap, head-dress.
4.1: 'had' = haud, hold.
4.2: 'neen nae' = need na, need not.]

FAIR HELEN OF KIRCONNELL

+The Text+ is taken from Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_
(1802), vol. i. pp. 72-79, omitting the tedious Part I. Another of many
versions may be found in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of
Scotland_, vol. xiii. pp. 275-6, about the year 1794; fourteen stanzas,
corresponding to most of Scott's two parts.

+The Story+ of the ballad is given in the two above-mentioned books from
tradition as follows. Fair Helen, of the clan of Irving or Bell,
favoured Adam Fleming (Fleeming) with her love; another suitor, whose
name is said to have been Bell, was the choice of the lady's family and
friends. The latter lover becoming jealous, concealed himself in the
bushes of the banks of the Kirtle, which flows by the kirkyard of
Kirconnell, where the true lovers were accustomed to walk. Being
discovered lurking there by Helen, he levelled his carbine at Adam
Fleming. Helen, however, threw herself into her lover's arms, and
received the bullet intended for him: whereupon he slew his rival. He
went abroad to Spain and fought against the infidels, but being still
inconsolable, returned to Kirconnell, perished on Helen's grave, and was
buried beside her. The to