The night was dark, the hour late
Cold blew the winter air
And as four farmers homeward walked
Down through the Lifford fair
Both sad and sharp it struck their ear
They thought they heard a cry
Said neither man nor animal
Although the winds blew high
They climbed the wall and searched the tombs
That thickly filled the ground
And spreading on a new-made grave
The sorrowful youth they found
His wild moans filled the chilly air
He looked pale and wild
His loud cries would have pierced your heart
For he wept like a child
They roused him from the cold wet eart
Inviting him away
He said move me not from this said spot
For here I mean to stay
This is my true love's grassy bed
And here all night I'll lie
All by the side of my long-lost bride
I will remain and die
In early life we whip had joined
In love both fond and true
There's not a care that touched my heart
But touched my feelings too
The times were bad and I was poor
It was then I went away
To make a fortune in strange lands
I crossed the roaring sea
Scarce before I went away
In wedlock's bonds we joined
It was then I left my tender bride
So lonely young and fond
For three long years I stayed away
I crossed the roaring sea
I won my fortune in strange lands
But there begins my grief
I came back on a summer night
Calm and fragrant was the air
She sat before her father's door
And had never looked so fair
I stood before her suddenly
And when I caught here eye
She clasped her hands before her face
And gave a piercing cry
The sudden shock then reached her heart
The story soon was told
When I came home her father gave
His hands to ancient gold
But all the gold that e'er was shown
Did fail to ease her mind
And like a tender flower crushed
Away she drooped and pined
Markwood followed after this
I need not stop to tell
In that day monster I could hear
The tolling funeral bell
Now I have done all with this Earth
And it has done with me
My love lies dead in her clay bed
Beneath yon willow tree
The stopped but neither force nor word
Could raise him from the ground
All night he lay on the cold clay
And next day he was found
And when they touched him he was dead
And where he lay he died
They dug his grave and side-by-side
They laid him with his bride

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