[ti:The Highwayman]
[ar:Loreena McKennitt]
[al:The Book Of Secrets]

[offset:500]
[00:47.78]Music: Loreena McKennitt
[00:52.78]lyrics: Alfred Noyes
[00:57.78]abridged by Loreena McKennitt
[01:02.78]
[01:07.78]The wind was a torrent of darkness
[01:10.42]among the gusty trees 
[01:13.33]The moon was a ghostly galleon
[01:15.89]tossed upon the cloudy seas
[01:18.85]The road was a ribbon of moonlight
[01:21.82]over the purple moor 
[01:24.43]And the highwayman came riding, 
[01:27.44]Riding, riding, 
[01:30.34]The highwayman came riding,
[01:32.73]up to the old inn-door. 
[01:35.94]
[01:37.19]He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead
[01:40.11]a bunch of lace at his chin,
[01:42.91]A coat of claret velvet
[01:45.48]and breeches of brown doe-skin
[01:48.33]They fitted with never a wrinkle
[01:51.05]his boots were up to the thigh! 
[01:53.91]And he rode with a jewelled twinkle, 
[01:56.74]His pistol butts a-twinkle, 
[01:59.68]His rapier hilt a-twinkle
[02:02.22]under the jewelled sky. 
[02:05.09]
[02:06.74]And over the cobbles he clattered
[02:09.38]and clashed in the dark innyard
[02:12.12]And he tapped with his whip on the shutters
[02:15.01]but all was locked and barred; 
[02:17.81]He whistled a tune to the window
[02:20.55]and who should be waiting there 
[02:23.41]But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
[02:26.50]Bess, the landlord's daughter, 
[02:29.40]Plaiting a dark red love-knot
[02:31.84]into her long black hair.
[02:34.51]
[02:36.26]"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart,
[02:38.91]I'm after a prize tonight,
[02:41.72]But I shall be back with the yellow gold
[02:44.66]before the morning light;
[02:47.36]Yet if they press me sharply,
[02:50.06]and harry me through the day,
[02:52.89]Then look for me by the moonlight, 
[02:56.07]Watch for me by the moonlight, 
[02:58.90]I'll come to thee by the moonlight
[03:01.39]though hell should bar the way. 
[03:04.08]
[03:05.74]He rose upright in the stirrups
[03:08.37]he scarce could reach her hand
[03:11.23]But she loosened her hair i' the casement!
[03:14.01]His face burnt like a brand
[03:16.76]As the black cascade of perfume
[03:19.54]came tumbling over his breast; 
[03:22.40]And he kissed it's waves in the moonlight, 
[03:25.55](Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
[03:28.23]Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight
[03:30.88]and galloped away to the west. 
[03:34.53]
[03:59.17]He did not come at the dawning;
[04:01.85]he did not come at noon, 
[04:04.74]And out of the tawny sunset,
[04:07.42]before the rise o' the moon, 
[04:10.18]When the road was a gypsy's ribbon,
[04:13.26]looping the purple moor, 
[04:15.87]A red-coat troop came marching,
[04:18.92]Marching, marching
[04:21.53]King George's men came marching,
[04:24.16]up to the old inn-door. 
[04:27.66]
[04:28.58]They said no word to the landlord,
[04:31.33]they drank his ale instead,
[04:34.20]But they gagged his daughter and bound her
[04:36.91]to the foot of her narrow bed; 
[04:39.71]Two of them knelt at the casement,
[04:42.55]with muskets at their side!
[04:45.32]there was death at every window 
[04:48.45]and hell at one dark window; 
[04:51.21]For Bess could see, through the casement,
[04:53.78]The road that he would ride. 
[04:56.66]
[04:58.13]They had tied her up to attention
[05:00.81]with many a sniggering jest;
[05:03.67]They had bound a musket beside her
[05:06.44]with the barrel beneath her breast!
[05:09.24]"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her. 
[05:12.07]She heard the dead man say 
[05:14.90]"Look for me by the moonlight
[05:17.95]Watch for me by the moonlight
[05:20.77]I'll come to thee by the moonlight
[05:23.31]though hell should bar the way!" 
[05:26.31]
[05:27.54]She twisted her hands behind her
[05:30.29]but all the knots held good! 
[05:33.30]She writhed her hands till her fingers
[05:35.97]were wet with sweat or blood!
[05:38.73]They stretched and strained in the darkness
[05:41.57]and the hours crawled by like years! 
[05:44.34]Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, 
[05:47.21]Cold, on the stroke of midnight, 
[05:50.32]The tip of one finger touched it!
[05:52.82]The trigger at least was hers! 
[05:56.49]
[06:11.29]Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it?
[06:13.98]The horse-hoofs were ringing clear
[06:16.77]Tlot-tlot, in the distance!
[06:19.49]Were they deaf that they did not hear?
[06:22.67]Down the ribbon of moonlight,
[06:25.29]over the brow of the hill, 
[06:27.94]The highwayman came riding,
[06:30.93]Riding, riding!
[06:33.74]The red-coats looked to their priming!
[06:36.21]She stood up straight and still! 
[06:39.18]
[06:40.56]Tlot in the frosty silence!
[06:43.36]Tlot in the echoing night!
[06:46.45]Nearer he came and nearer!
[06:48.96]Her face was like a light!
[06:51.80]Her eyes grew wide for a moment!
[06:54.50]She drew one last deep breath,
[06:57.34]Then her finger moved in the moonlight, 
[07:00.46]Her musket shattered the moonlight, 
[07:03.29]Shattered her breast in the moonlight
[07:05.86]and warned him with her death. 
[07:09.19]
[07:10.24]He turned; he spurred to the west;
[07:12.87]he did not know she stood
[07:15.70]bowed, with her head o'er the musket,
[07:18.38]drenched with her own red blood!
[07:21.19]Not till the dawn he heard it;
[07:24.10]his face grew grey to hear 
[07:26.79]How Bess, the landlord's daughter, 
[07:29.77]The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
[07:32.50]Had watched for her love in the moonlight,
[07:35.26]and died in the darkness there. 
[07:38.52]
[07:39.71]And back, he spurred like a madman,
[07:42.54]shrieking a curse to the sky
[07:45.24]With the white road smoking behind him
[07:47.90]and his rapier brandished high!
[07:50.73]Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon;
[07:53.62]wine-red was his velvet coat,
[07:56.35]when they shot him down on the highway, 
[07:59.13]Down like a dog on the highway, 
[08:02.05]And he lay in his blood on the highway,
[08:04.87]with the bunch of lace at his throat. 
[08:08.70]
[08:24.81]Still of a winter's night, they say,
[08:27.56]when the wind is in the trees,
[08:30.21]When the moon is a ghostly galleon,
[08:32.92]tossed upon the cloudy seas,
[08:35.81]When the road is a ribbon of moonlight
[08:38.85]over the purple moor, 
[08:41.50]A highwayman comes riding,
[08:44.47]Riding, riding,
[08:47.31]A highwayman comes riding,
[08:49.90]up to the old inn-door
[08:53.96]
[09:36.41]
[10:12.56]END