Campbell's Daughter (The Emigrant & The Exile, 1993)
CAMPBELL'S DAUGHTER by Eric Bogle
George Campbell was a hard and ruthless man Hated and feared by most who knew him Dark as the Highland Hills from which he sprang A wild cruel streak ran through him But still he was a man o' wealth and property While I was a landless cotter And therein lay the seeds of grief and tragedy For I was in love with Campbell's daughter.
Isia Campbell was as fair as her father was dark As different as the night is frae the mornin' Not before or since have I met a truer heart Or one that was so full o' yeamin' She hungered after love, and she hungered after life And what I knew o' both I gladly taught her For soon I was resolved to make her my wife For I was in love with Campbell's daughter.
So I put on my best clothes, and to Campbell's house I went The lion in his own den to beard him For Isia would not marry me without his consent She knew him too well, aye, and she feared him When I asked for his consent he damned me all to hell For a shiftless and landless pauper \"Afore I'd let her marry you\" he said, \"I'd kill her mysel'! You shall never have my daughter!\"
He struck me in the face and he knocked me to the ground And he cursed me as I lay there bleedin' Darkness filled my eyes as more blows came raining down I could feel my consciousness recedin' Then I heard an awful cry and I lifted up my head And beheld a hellish scene o' bloody slaughter Wi' a long knife in his throat, George Campbell lay dead And behind him stood Isia, his daughter.
When Isia came tae trial on the Bible she swore That she struck to stop her father's killing anger But the prosecution painted her as a wanton and a whore The Jury a' agreed and they hanged her A stolen kiss or two and an unjust early grave Was the little that my hopeless love had brought her Until my dying breath I shall curse the day When I fell in love with Campbell's Daughter.