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Title
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Mantle of green
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Singer
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Rowles, Alice, Mrs. [Minnie]
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Song Lyrics
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Verse 1
As I was walking one morning in June,
To view the gay fields and the meadows in bloom;
I spied a young female, she appeared like a queen,
With costly fine robes and a mantle of green.
Verse 2
I stood in amaze and looked on her with surprise,
I thought her an angel had fallen from the skies;
Her eyes shone like diamonds, her cheeks like a rose,
She's one of the finest that Nature composed.
Verse 3
I said, 'Lovely fair one, if you can agree,
We will join in wedlock and married we'll be;
I'll dress you in riches, you'll appear like a queen,
With costly fine robes and a mantle of green.'
Verse 4
She quickly made answer, 'You must be refused,
For I'll wed with no man, and I must be excused;
To the green woods I'll wander and shun all men too,
For the boy that I love is in famed Waterloo.'
Verse 5
'Then if you will not marry me, tell me your love's name,
For I've been a soldier and might know the same.'
'Draw near to my mantle and there it shall be seen,
His name is embroidered in my mantle of green.'
Verse 6
Then, raising her mantle, it was there I did behold,
His name and his surname in letters of bright gold;
Young William O'Riley appeared to my view,
He was my companion at famed Waterloo.
Verse 7
'We fought there so valiant, the bullets did fly,
In the field of battle your true love he did die;
We fought for three days till the third afternoon,
He received his death wound on the eighteenth of June.
Verse 8
When he was dying I hear his last sigh,'
'Where are you my Nancy? Contented I die.'
'Now peace is proclaimed, the truth I declare,
Here is your love's token, this gold ring I wear.'
Verse 9
The longer she viewed it the paler she grew,
And fell in my arms with her heart full of woe -
'To the green woods I'll wander for the boy that I love.'
'Oh, stop here, lovely Nancy, for your grief I'll remove.
Verse 10
Oh, Nancy, lovely Nancy, since I've won your heart,
In your father's garden no more we will part;
I will clothe you in rich attire, and you'll look like a queen,
With a cluster of roses round your mantle of green.'
