WWW.AZCHORDS.COM | Loreena Mckennitt - The Highwayman Chords | Ver. 1
[Intro 1]
Dm F C Dm
Dm F C G
[Intro 2]
Dm A# C Dm
Dm A# C G
[Verse]
Dm A# C Dm
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
Dm A# C Dm
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
G C F C Dm A# C
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
G C F C
And the highwayman came riding,
Dm A# C
Riding, riding,
Dm C F Dm A# G
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Dm A# C Dm
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
Dm A# C Dm
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
G C F C Dm A# C
They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh!
G C F C
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
Dm A# C
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
Dm C F Dm A# G
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
Dm A# C Dm
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
Dm A# C Dm
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
G C F C Dm A# C
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
G C F C
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Dm A# C
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Dm C F Dm A# G
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Dm A# C Dm
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
Dm A# C Dm
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
G C F C Dm A# C
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
G C F C
Then look for me by the moonlight,
Dm A# C
Watch for me by the moonlight,
Dm C F Dm A# G
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
Dm A# C Dm
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand
Dm A# C Dm
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
G C F C Dm A# C
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
G C F C
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
Dm A# C
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Dm C F Dm A# G
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.
Dm A# C Dm
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
Dm A# C Dm
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
G C F C Dm A# C
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
G C F C
A red-coat troop came marching,
Dm A# C
Marching, marching
Dm C F Dm A# G
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
Dm A# C Dm
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
Dm A# C Dm
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
G C F C Dm A# C
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
G C F C
There was death at every window
Dm A# C
And hell at one dark window;
Dm C F
For Bess could see, through the casement,
Dm A# G
The road that he would ride.
Dm A# C Dm
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
Dm A# C Dm
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
G C F C Dm A# C
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.She heard the dead man say
G C F C
"Look for me by the moonlight
Dm A# C
Watch for me by the moonlight
Dm C F
I'll come to thee by the moonlight,
Dm A# G
though hell should bar the way!"
Dm A# C Dm
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
Dm A# C Dm
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
G C F C Dm A# C
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
G C F C
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Dm A# C
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
Dm C F
The tip of one finger touched it!
Dm A# G
The trigger at least was hers!
[Bridge]
Dm A# C
G
Dm A# C Dm
Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs were ringing clear
Dm A# C Dm
Tlot-tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
G C F C Dm A# C
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
G C F C
The highwayman came riding,
Dm A# C
Riding, riding!
Dm C F
The red-coats looked to their priming!
Dm A# G
She stood up straight and still!
Dm A# C Dm
Tlot in the frosty silence! Tlot, in the echoing night!
Dm A# C Dm
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
G C F C Dm A# C
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
G C F C
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Dm A# C
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Dm C F
Shattered her breast in the moonlight
Dm A# G
and warned him with her death.
Dm A# C Dm
He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
Dm A# C Dm
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
G C F C Dm A# C
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
G C F C
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Dm A# C
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Dm C F
Had watched for her love in the moonlight,
Dm A# G
and died in the darkness there.
Dm A# C Dm
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
Dm A# C Dm
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
G C F C Dm A# C
Blood-red were the spurs i' the gold noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
G C F C
When they shot him down on the highway,
Dm A# C
Down like a dog on the highway,
Dm C F
And he lay in his blood on the highway,
Dm A# G
with the bunch of lace at his throat.
[Bridge2]
Dm F C Dm
Dm F C G
Dm A# C Dm
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind's in the trees,
Dm A# C Dm
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
G C F C Dm A# C
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
G C F C
A highwayman comes riding,
Dm A# C
Riding, riding,
Dm C F
A highwayman comes riding,
Dm A# G
up to the old inn-door.
[End]
Dm A# C Dm
Dm F C Dm
Dm F C G