He Pulled a Dagger- Amy Birch (Dev) c1974 REC
[From: English Folk Music Anthology, Folkways FE 38553, LP 1981, trk# 3.03 [1974-1980]. Also received MP3 from Gwilym Davies taken from a video he made of Amy Birch.
R. Matteson 2016]
He Pulled a Dagger- Sung by traveller Amy Birch of Oxbridge, Devon c1974.
He pulled[1] a dagger from his coat,
And laid her down to the ground,
And there the blood came a trick'ling,
A-trickling from the wound.
He grabbed her by her curly locks
And he dragged her to the stream
There he got a-thinking
When at last he throws her in.
He watched her float, yes he watched her float,
He watched her go down with the tide
Saying that poor girl's got a watery grave,
When she ought to have been my bride.
He goes home to his master's house
Twelve o'clock that night
His master rose and let him in,
By a striking of a light.
He asked him and he questioned him,
What had stained his hands and his clothes
And the answer that he gave to him,
Was the bleedings from his nose.
It was a few days after
That poor girl was missed;
They took him on suspicion,
For doing all of this.
They sent him on to Newgate,
There to be tried for his life;
For the murd'ring of that honest young girl
That ought to have been his wife.
It was a few days after,
That poor girl was found
She came floating down the river
Near by Wesley Town.
The judge and the jury
They set theirselves to agree
For the murd'ring of that honest young girl
And a-hang-ed you shall be.
1. Davies recording "took"