+Text.+-- The Percy Folio is the sole authority for this excellent
ballad, and the text of the MS. is therefore given here _literatim_, in
preference to the copy served up 'with considerable corrections' by
Percy in the _Reliques_. I have, however, substituted a few obvious
emendations suggested by Professor Child, giving the Folio reading in a
footnote.
+The Story+ is practically identical with that of _Little Musgrave and
Lady Barnard_; but each is so good, though in a different vein, that
neither could be excluded.
The last stanza narrates the practice of burning a cross on the flesh of
the right shoulder when setting forth to the Holy Land--a practice which
obtained only among the very devout or superstitious of the Crusaders.
Usually a cross of red cloth attached to the right shoulder of the coat
was deemed sufficient.