Sae rantingly, sae wantonly Sae dauntingly gaed he He played a tune and he danced it aroon' Alow the gallows tree
Fareweel, ye dungeons dark and strang Fareweel, fareweel, said he MacPherson's time will no' be lang Alow the gallows tree
It was by a woman's treacherous hand That I was condemned tae dee Aboon a ledge at a windae she stood And a blanket she threw o'er me
Untie these bands frae aff o' my hands And gie tae me my sword There's no a man in a' Scotland But I'll brave him at his word
There's some come here tae see me hang And some tae buy my fiddle But afore that I dae part wi' her I'd brak' her through the middle
He took his fiddle into both of his hands And he brak' it o'er a stone Said, Nae ither hands shall play on thee When I am deid and gane
Ach, little did my mother think When first she cradled me That I would turn a roving boy And die on the gallows tree
The reprieve it was coming o'er the Brig o' Banff Tae set MacPherson free But they put the knock tae a quarter past four And they hanged him tae the tree
Parcel O' Rogues sung by Alastair McDonald ... Robert Burns' castigation of the Scottish nobility for selling their countrymen's birthright in 1707 ...