As I went out walking one morning in June,
To view the fair fields and the valleys in bloom,
I spied a pretty fair maid she appeared like a queen
With her costly fine robes and her mantle so green.
Says I, "My pretty fair maid, won´t you come with me
We´ll both join in wedlock, and married we´ll be,
I´ll dress you in fine linnen, you´ll appear like a queen,
With your costly fine robes and your mantle so green."
Says she now, "You Young man, you must be excused,
For I´ll wed with no man, you must be refused;
To the green woods I will wander to shun all men´s view, ........(?)
For the lad that I love fell in famed Waterloo."
"O, then, if you won´t marry, tell me your love´s name,
For I being in battle, I might know the same."
"Draw near to my garment and there will be seen,
His name is embroidered on my mantle so green."
In raising her mantle there I did behold
His name and his surname in letters of gold;
Young William O´Reilly appeared in my view
He was my chief comrade back in famed Waterloo.
But when he was dying I heard his last cry
´If you were here, Lovely Nancy, contented I´d die;´
Now Peace is proclaimed, and the truth I declare
Here is your love token, the gold ring I wear."
O, Nancy, dear Nancy, ´tis I won your heart
In your father´s garden that day we did part.
Now the wars are all over, no trouble is seen
And I´ll wed with my true love in her mantle so green."