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[01:07.69]The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
[01:13.03]The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
[01:18.85]The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
[01:24.34]And the highwayman came riding
[01:27.08]Riding, riding
[01:30.33]The highwayman came riding up to the old inn-door
[01:37.22]He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin
[01:43.14]A coat of claret velvet and breeches of brown doe-skin
[01:48.50]They fitted with never a wrinkle, his boots were up to the thigh
[01:54.08]And he rode with a jewelled twinkle
[01:56.97]His pistol butts a-twinkle
[02:00.02]His rapier hilt a-twinkle under the jewelled sky
[02:06.53]And over cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn yard
[02:12.52]And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred
[02:18.01]He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
[02:23.90]But the landlord's black-eyed daughter
[02:26.91]Bess, the landlord's daughter
[02:29.93]Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair
[02:36.17]"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight
[02:42.05]But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light
[02:47.52]Yet if they press me sharply and harry me through the day
[02:53.42]Then look for me by the moonlight
[02:56.58]Watch for me by the moonlight
[02:59.39]I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way"
[03:06.20]He rose upright in the stirrups, he scarce could reach her hand
[03:11.53]But she loosened her hair i' the casement, his face burnt like a brand
[03:17.26]As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast
[03:23.16]And he kissed its waves in the moonlight
[03:26.09]Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight
[03:28.62]He tugged at his rein in the moonlight and galloped away to the west
[03:35.91]🎵
[03:59.88]He did not come at the dawning, he did not come at noon
[04:05.38]And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon
[04:11.16]When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor
[04:16.73]A red-coat troop came marching
[04:19.54]Marching, marching
[04:22.34]King George's men came marching up to the old inn-door
[04:29.57]They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead
[04:34.95]But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed
[04:40.59]Two of them knelt at the casement with muskets at their side
[04:46.28]There was death at every window
[04:49.33]Hell at one dark window
[04:52.26]For Bess could see through the casement
[04:54.70]The road that he would ride
[04:59.07]They had tied her up to attention with many a snickering jest
[05:04.48]They had bound a musket beside her with the barrel beneath her breast
[05:10.21]"Now keep good watch", and they kissed her
[05:12.97]She heard the dead man say
[05:15.70]"Look for me by the moonlight
[05:19.15]Watch for me by the moonlight
[05:21.94]I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way"
[05:28.75]She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good
[05:34.17]But she writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood
[05:39.87]They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years
[05:45.54]Till, now, on the stroke of midnight
[05:48.37]Cold on the stroke of midnight
[05:51.57]The tip of one finger touched it
[05:54.38]The trigger, at least, was hers
[05:58.12]🎵
[06:12.33]Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse's hooves ring clear
[06:18.13]Tlot-tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf they did not hear?
[06:24.08]Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill
[06:29.36]The highwayman came riding
[06:32.52]Riding, riding
[06:35.27]The red-coats looked to their priming
[06:37.72]She stood up straight and still
[06:41.96]Tlot in the frosty silence! Tlot, in the echoing night
[06:47.70]Nearer came and nearer, her face was like a light
[06:53.37]Her eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breath
[06:58.93]Then her finger moved in the moonlight
[07:01.96]Her musket shattered the moonlight
[07:04.86]Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death
[07:11.81]He turned, he spurred to the west, he did not know she stood
[07:17.09]Bowed with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood
[07:22.93]Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
[07:28.62]How Bess, the landlord's daughter
[07:31.67]The landlord's black-eyed daughter
[07:34.22]Had watched for her love in the moonlight and died in the darkness there
[07:41.43]And back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
[07:46.94]With a white road smoking behind him, and his rapier brandished high
[07:52.63]Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon, wine-red was his velvet coat
[07:58.39]When they shot him down on the highway
[08:01.29]Down like a dog on the highway
[08:04.19]And he lay in his blood on the highway with a bunch of lace at his throat
[08:11.53]🎵
[08:26.56]Still on a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees
[08:32.07]When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
[08:38.04]When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
[08:43.24]A highwayman comes riding
[08:46.64]Riding, riding
[08:49.32]A highwayman comes riding up to the old inn-door
[08:55.57]🎵