The Highwayman
[00:45]The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.
[00:51]The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas.
[00:57]The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor.
[01:03]And the highwayman came riding,riding, riding,
[01:08]The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
[01:14]He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
[01:20]A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
[01:26]They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh!
[01:31]And he rode with a jewelled twinkle.
[01:33]His pistol butts a-twinkle,His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
[01:43]Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
[01:48]And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
[01:54]He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there?
[01:59]But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
[02:02]Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
[02:12]"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
[02:17]But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
[02:22]Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
[02:27]Then look for me by the moonlight, watch for me by the moonlight,
[02:33]I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
[02:40]He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand.
[02:45]But she loosened her hair in the casement! His face burnt like a brand.
[02:50]As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
[02:56]And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
[02:59](Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
[03:02]Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.
[03:31]He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon.
[03:37]And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,
[03:42]When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
[03:47]A red-coat troop came marching, marching, marching
[03:53]King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
[03:59]They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
[04:05]But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
[04:10]Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
[04:16]there was death at every window, hell at one dark window;
[04:21]For Bess could see, through the casement,
[04:24]The road that he would ride.
[04:28]They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
[04:34]They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
[04:39]"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
[04:42]She heard the dead man say
[04:45]"Look for me by the moonlight. Watch for me by the moonlight
[04:50]I'll kome to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"
[04:57]She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
[05:02]She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
[05:07]They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
[05:12]Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
[05:17]Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
[05:19]The tip of one finger touched it!The trigger at least was hers!
[05:35]Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs were ringing clear.
[05:41]Tlot-tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
[05:47]Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
[05:52]The highwayman came riding, riding, riding!
[05:58]The red-coats looked to their priming!She stood up straight and still!
[06:05]Tlot in the frosty silence! Tlot, in the echoing night!
[06:11]Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
[06:16]Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
[06:21]Then her finger moved in the moonlight. Her musket shattered the moonlight
[06:27]shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.
[06:33]He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
[06:38]bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
[06:44]Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear.
[06:49]How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
[06:52]The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
[06:55]Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
[07:01]And back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky.
[07:07]With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
[07:12]Blood-red were the spurs in the golden moon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
[07:17]when they shot him down on the highway;Down like a dog on the highway
[07:23]And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
[07:45]Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
[07:50]When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
[07:56]When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
[08:02]A highwayman comes riding, riding, riding,
[08:07]A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.