Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

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THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 44?
" Now, woeful pilgrim, say not so !
" But kneel thee down by me,
" And shrive thee so clean of thy deadly sin,
" That absolved thou may'st be."
" And who art thou, thou Gray Brother,
" That I should shrive to thee,
" When He, to whom are given the keys of earth and heav'n,
" Has no power to pardon me ?"
*' O I am sent from a distant clime,
" Five thousand miles away,
" And all to absolve a foul, foid crime,
" Done here 'twixt night and day.""
The pilgrim kneePd him on the sand,
And thus began his saye
When on his neck an ice-cold hand
Did that Gray Brother laye.