+The Text+ is from the Jamieson-Brown MS., on which version Scott drew
partly for his ballad in the _Minstrelsy_. Mrs. Brown recited the ballad
again to William Tytler in 1783, but the result is now lost, with most
of the other Tytler-Brown versions.
+The Story.+--One point, the maid's feint of death to escape from her
father to her lover, is the subject of a ballad very popular in France;
a version entitled _Belle Isambourg_ is printed in a collection called
_Airs de Cour_, 1607. Feigning death to escape various threats is a
common feature in many European ballads.
It is perhaps needless to remark that no goshawk sings sweetly, much
less talks. In Buchan's version (of forty-nine stanzas) the goshawk is
exchanged for a parrot.