Intro: AmAmCGAmAmCG/BAm
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
AmCG/BAm
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
DmGCG/BAmG
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
DmGCG/B
And the highwayman came riding,
AmG
Riding, riding,
AmG/BDmAm
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
AmCG/BAm
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
AmCG/BAm
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
DmGCG/BAmG/B
They fitted with nary a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh
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And he rode with a jeweled twinkle,
AmG
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
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His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.
AmCG/BAm
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn yard,
AmCG/BAm
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
DmGCG/BAmG/B
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there?
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But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
AmG
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
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Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
AmCG/BAm
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
AmCGAm
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
DmGCG\BAmG
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
DmGCG/B
Then look for me by the moonlight,
AmAm
Watch for me by the moonlight,
AmGDmAm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
AmCGAm
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand
AmCG/BAm
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
DmGCG/BAmG/B
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
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And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
AmG
(Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight!)
AmG/BDmAm
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.
AmCG/BAm
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
AmCG/BAm
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
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When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
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A red-coat troop came marching,
AmG
Marching, marching
AmG/BDmAm
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
AmCG
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
AmCG/BAm
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed
DmGCG/BAmG/B
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
DmGCG/B
There was death at every window
AmG
And hell at one dark window;
AmG/BDm
For Bess could see, through the casement,
Am
The road that he would ride.
AmCGAm
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
AmCG/BAm
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
DmGCG/B
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
AmG/B
She heard the dead man say
DmGCG/B
"Look for me by the moonlight
AmG
Watch for me by the moonlight
AmG/BDmAm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"
AmCGAm
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
AmCG/BAm
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
DmGCG/BAmG/B
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
DmGCG/B
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
AmG
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
AmG/BDm
The tip of one finger touched it!
Am
The trigger at least was hers!
AmCG/BAm
Totelot-totelot! Had they heard it? The horse's hooves rang clear
AmCG/BAm
Totelot-totelot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
DmGCG/BAmG/B
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
DmGCG
The highwayman came riding,
AmG
Riding, riding!
AmG/BDm
The red-coats looked to their priming!
Am
She stood up straight and still!
AmCGAm
Totelot in the frosty silence! Totelot, in the echoing night!
AmCG/BAm
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
DmGCG/BAmG/B
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
DmGCG/B
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
AmG
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
AmG/BDmAm
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.
AmCGAm
He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
AmCGAm
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
DmGCG/BAmG/B
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
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How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
AmG
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
AmG/BDmAm
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
AmCG/BAm
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
AmCG/BAm
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
DmGCGAmG
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
DmGCG
When they shot him down on the highway,
AmG
Down like a dog on the highway,
AmG/BDmAm
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
AmCG/BAm
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
AmCG/BAm
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
DmGCGAmG/B
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
DmGCG
A highwayman comes riding,
AmG
Riding, riding,
AmG/BDmAm
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.