Ewan McLennan - The Butcher's Boy lyrics

My parents gave me learning, good learning they gave to me For they sent me to a butcher's shop a butcher boy to be It's there I met sweet Mary Ann with a dark and a rovin' eye And I promised I would marry her in the month of sweet July He went down to her mother's house 'tween the hours of eight and nine And he asked her for to walk with him down by the foaming brine Down by the foaming brine we'll go, down by the foaming brine Now won't that be a pleasant walk, down by the foaming brine? They walked it east and they walked it west and they walked it all alone Till he took a knife from out his breast and he stabbed her to the ground She fell upon one bended knee and for mercy she did cry Now Billie dear, don't murder me, I'm not prepared to die He took her by the lily-white hands and he dragged her through the broom And with a mighty downward push he threw her body in He went back to his mother's house 'tween the hours of twelve and one And little did his mother know what her only son had done He asked her for a handkerchief to tie around his head And he asked her for a candlelight to show him off to bed No sleep, no rest did the young man get, no rest he could not find For he thought he saw the gates of hell approaching his bedside And the murder it was soon found out and the gallows was his doom For the murdering of sweet Mary Ann who lies where the roses bloom