I personally think that the roses and lilies are exotic Kashmiri females who, along with a handsome young man, have been rescued / captured from a wreck by a band of drunken robbers / highwaymen. They are being taken in a wagon to the robber's retreat on the wooded hillside and there is much revelry and goading going on, i.e. they're returning to their own 'caves in the mountain' and the young kashmir man is bowing his head with fatigue, despair, who knows... :) The robbers would have been impressed with his maybe effeminate beauty (compared with their swarthy features) and probably meant to carry away the womenfolk to marry - much in the style of the Doones in Lorna Doone. I love listening to the Fisherman's Friends sing this song and this is the story I conjure in my head, makes perfect sense to me lol!