+The Text+ is given from two copies in Herd's MSS. as collated by Child,
with the exception of two lines, 9.3,4, which are taken from a third and
shorter copy in Herd's MSS., printed by him in the _Scottish Songs_.
Scott's ballad, _Earl Richard_, is described by him as made up from the
above-mentioned copies of Herd, with some trivial alterations adopted
from tradition--a totally inadequate account of wholesale alterations.
Scott also gives a similar ballad in _Lord William_.
+The Story.+--Young Hunting, a king's son, tells a former mistress that
he has a new sweetheart whom he loves thrice as well. The lady conceals
her anger, plies him with wine, and slays him in his drunken sleep. Her
deed unluckily is overseen by a bonny bird, whom she attempts to coax
into captivity, but fails. She dresses Young Hunting for riding, and
throws him into the Clyde. The king his father asks for him. She swears
by corn (see First Series, _Glasgerion_, p. 1) that she has not seen him
since yesterday at noon. The king's divers search for him in vain, until
the bonny bird reminds them of the method of finding a drowned corpse by
the means of candles. The lady still denies her guilt, and accuses her
maid 'Catheren,' but the bonfire refuses to consume the innocent
Catheren. When the real culprit is put in, she burns like hoky-gren.
The discovery of a drowned body by candles is a recognised piece of
folklore. Usually the candle is stuck in a loaf of bread or on a cork,
and set afloat in the river; sometimes a hole is cut in a loaf of bread
and mercury poured in to weight it; even a chip of wood is used. The
superstition still survives. The most rational explanation offered is
that as eddies in rapid streams form deep pools, in which a body might
easily be caught, so a floating substance indicates the place by being
caught in the centre of the eddy.
The failure of the fire to burn an innocent maid is also, of course,
a well-known incident.