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To church then we’ll go in private, said he,
Suppose to the minister we give a fee,
Your face shall be covered that none may you know,
So they did conclude for to order it so.
Both privately we’ll go out in the morn,
And pair at the church, so homeward return,
At night in the dark to my chamber you'll come,
Then my old father may know what we’ve done.
This fancy I tell you pleased him very well,
But, dearest, be sure your maid do not tell,
And to-morrow morning pray let it be so,
This day to the parson, my dear, I will go.
My father three days to the country is gone,
And in the mean time, love, this thing may be done,
Thinks Betty, but I’ll be too cunning for thee,
For master’s bride I'm resolved to be.
As soon as the ’squire was gone as we hear,
Young Betty she goes to her lady so fair,
The lady she quickly the secret did tell,
And Betty did seem to be pleas’d very well.
Madam, if you will be counsel’d by me,
In your chamber in private I’d have you stay,
The servants I’ll tell you are visiting gone,
For if you’re betray’d madam, we are undone.
The lady she lik’d her advice very well,
So to all the servants she straightway did tell,
Her mistress she was a-visiting gone,
Bo, gallants, I pray now observe but the fun.
That night the young lady with Betty would lie,
The crafty young damsel most secretly,
A medicine had got to cause her to sleep,
While she the young squire would go for to meet.
In the morning early indeed she arose,
And drest herself up in her mistresses clothes,
With a mast on her face, to the ’squire she went,
And soon they were marry’d to her great content.
