On a frosty night,
By the pale moonlight,
I come for my promised bride.
Though the journey's long,
Yet my love is strong,
As full as the ocean tide.
Past the darkling crag,
Like a bounding stag,
My steed never slacks his pace,
And his hoof-beats pound
On the stony ground,
A match to my heart's mad race.
To the mountain-side
Where I end my ride,
Clings a fortress grim and gray.
See my love run there,
With her streaming hair
Agleam in the moon's soft ray.
To my arms she leaps,
As the sunrise creeps
To gild all the eastern sky.
When the first light falls
On the castle walls,
There sounds a despairing cry.
'Tis her father's voice
And she has no choice
But turn for a last sad glance,
Ere I tug the rein
And we ride again;
Now flight is our only chance.
For a father's curse
And a rich man's purse
Lays a price upon my head.
For the daughter lost
And the pride that's cost,
The morrow may find me dead.
But her father's men,
Though they search the glen
From mountain to sparkling sea,
Not a trace they find
Of the stag and hind
Who run with the wild and free.
We are married now
With a solemn vow,
Our altar the greenwood shade.
To the outlaw life
I have wed a wife,
Our home in the forest made.
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