Brian McNeill - The Baltic Tae Byzantium lyrics

Well, my father was a sodger frae the parish o' Bonawe Would fain have seen me listed in the gallant forty-twa But there's mair to life than drum or fife for a highland lad tae know So I took ship at Peterheid, bound for the lowlands low And I fell in wi' a merchant lad frae the town of Armentieres Who promised me an honest fee tae help him guard his wares And if I'd go wi' him tae Danzig and the plains o' Muscovy There'd be the Baltic and Byzantium tae see Well I bought and sold wi' Swedes and Poles, frae Rostock tae the Rhine It was hites for corn and cups o' horn, salt for Spanish wine And when the armies pa**ed me by, well I always raised my gla** For there's many a sodger laddie buys a trinket for his la** And yince I heard the call o' hame in the port o' Amsterdam When a fiddler laddie played the airs o' Scotia for a dram But the other call was strong enough tae turn me frae the shore For the Baltic and Byzantium once more In Rome they stole my horses, in Prague they stole my cairt And on the bonny banks o' Istria, well, a la**ie stole my hairt I bade her teach me twenty words by auld Dubrovnik's wa's By the time she'd taught me forty, I'd enough tae plead my cause I asked her if she'd ever dreamed o' different airts tae see Or tae make a live as honest wife tae a lad o' pairts like me And when her faither tried to reason her, a richer man tae find I said the Baltic and Byzantium were mine And now I sit the winter lang, the bairns aboot my knee And if ye can, show me the man wi' a better life than me But there's times I sit and I wonder, and the thoughts that fill my mind Are tides and trade and bargains made doon roads I've yet tae find So perhaps I'll rise right early and I'll saddle up my mare And on her back lay a pedlar's pack wi' the best o' Scotia's wares And I'll set out wi' a right good will by mountain and by glen Tae see the Baltic and Byzantium again