Lonely Waterloo

Also known as "Bloody Waterloo"

Earliest printed versions in:
Ballads and Sea-Songs of Newfoundland,
Collected and edited by Elizabeth Bristol Greenleaf, music recorded by Grace Yarrow Mansfield, 1933.
pp.178-179, 1930 and 1929.


LONELY WATERLOO
Version A
Page 178
Communicated by Mrs. Maude Roberta Simmoods, Glenbunde, Bonne Bay, 1930.

1
As a lady fair was walking down by a riverside,
The crystal tears fell from her eyes as I walked by her side,
I saw her wavering bosom, those words been kind and true,
Saying, "Friends, I'm afraid my Willy is slain in Lonely Waterloo

2
"What was the clothes your Willy wore?" a soldier there replied.
"He wore an 'ighland bonnet with a feather standing high,
With a glistering sword hung by his side over his dark suit of blue;
This was the clothes my Willy wore in Lonely Waterloo."

3
"If that's the clothes your Willy wore, I saw his dying day;
Five bayonets pierced his tender breast, before that he down lay.
He hold me out his dying hand, saying, 'Some Frenchman did me slew.'
'Twas I that closed your Willy's eyes in Lonely Waterloo."

4
As soon as she heard him say those words in the soldier's arms she flew:
"O Willy, lovely Willy!" sure she could say no more.
"If I had the wings of small birds, with eagles I would fly;
I would fly to Lonely Waterloo where my true love do lie."

5
"I'd alight on his bosom; all sorrows I'd remove;
I would kiss my Willy's pale cold lips in Lonely Waterloo.
I'd alight all on his bosom, all sorrow I'd remove,
Since my Willy lies a mouldering corpse in Lonely Waterloo."


LONELY WATERLOO
Version B
Page 179
Recited by Patrick Lahey, Fortune Harbour, 1929.

1
"What sort of clothes did your Willy wear?" the soldier did reply.
"He wore a Highland bonnet with a feather standing by,
A glittering sword hung by his side o'er his dark suit of blue;
And that's the clothes my Willy wore at Lonely Waterloo."

2
"If that's the clothing your Willy wore, I saw his dying day;
'Twas by a bullet from a Frenchman's gun...
I was your Willy's comrade, I saw your Willy die,
Three bullets through did pierce his breast, before he down did lie.
And as he lay, I heard him say, `Some Frenchmen did me slew.'
'Twas I that closed your Willy's eyes at Lonely Waterloo."

3
"O Willy, lovely Willy" — and she could say no more,
She threw herself down on her knees, these awful tidings bore.
"The jaws of death might open me, and swallow me down through,
Since the lad is dead that I adore, at Lonely Waterloo."