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