The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #40152   Message #2751460
Posted By: Young Buchan
23-Oct-09 - 09:20 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Spooky Ballads for Halloween
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE
There's also The Suffolk Miracle (not a reference to Dick Miles). If this doesn't give you goose-bumps, you're already dead! Tune is McCaffery.

There was a squire lived in this town
He was a squire of high renown;
He had a daughter of beauty bright
And oh she always was his heart's delight.

Earls, dukes and lords to court her came,
But none of them could her favour gain.
There was a young lad of birth so low,
And oh this young girl she loved him so.

But when her father came to see
She loved a man of such low degree,
One hundred miles he sent her away
Just to keep her from her wedding day.

Then one night she for bed was bound,
And she stepped out of her lovely gown,
When she heard the voice of her true love say
"Come rise up quickly, love, and let's away."

She her true love's voice did know;
Her father's horse she did know also.
She dressed herself from head to toe
And with the young man away did go.

They had not riden an hour or more
When he cried out "Darling, my head is sore."
Her holland handkerchief she took out
And with it she did bind his head about.

They rode along to her father's gate.
"Light off, light off," then the young man said.
"Light off, light off," then the young man said,
"While I make sure that my horse is fed."

She did enter her father's hall.
"Who's there, who's there?" did her father call.
"It's me, dear father. You sent for me
All by that young man that so well loves me."

Then her father cursed and swore.
He wrung his hands till they both were sore.
He tore the very hair from off his head,
For he knew this young man lay twelve months dead.

Early next morning at the break of day
They opened the grave where the young man lay.
And though his body was twelve months dead
There's a holland handkerchief wrapped round his head.