+The Text+ is taken from Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_
(1802), vol. i. pp. 72-79, omitting the tedious Part I. Another of many
versions may be found in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of
Scotland_, vol. xiii. pp. 275-6, about the year 1794; fourteen stanzas,
corresponding to most of Scott's two parts.
+The Story+ of the ballad is given in the two above-mentioned books from
tradition as follows. Fair Helen, of the clan of Irving or Bell,
favoured Adam Fleming (Fleeming) with her love; another suitor, whose
name is said to have been Bell, was the choice of the lady's family and
friends. The latter lover becoming jealous, concealed himself in the
bushes of the banks of the Kirtle, which flows by the kirkyard of
Kirconnell, where the true lovers were accustomed to walk. Being
discovered lurking there by Helen, he levelled his carbine at Adam
Fleming. Helen, however, threw herself into her lover's arms, and
received the bullet intended for him: whereupon he slew his rival. He
went abroad to Spain and fought against the infidels, but being still
inconsolable, returned to Kirconnell, perished on Helen's grave, and was
buried beside her. The tombstone, bearing a sword and a cross, with _Hic
jacet Adamus Fleming_, is still (says Scott) shown in the churchyard of
Kirconnell.
The Flemings were a family belonging to Kirkpatrick-Fleming, a parish in
Dumfries which includes Kirconnell.