Binnorie

BINNORIE

Once upon a time there were two king's daughters lived in a bower near the

  bonny mill-dams of Binnorie. And Sir William came wooing the eldest and


  won her love and plighted troth with glove and with ring. But after a time


  he looked upon the youngest, with her cherry cheeks and golden hair, and


  his love grew towards her till he cared no longer for the eldest one. So


  she hated her sister for taking away Sir William's love, and day by day


  her hate grew upon her, and she plotted and she planned how to get rid of


  her.

So one fine morning, fair and clear, she said to her sister, “Let us go

  and see our father's boats come in at the bonny mill-stream of Binnorie.”


   So they went there hand in hand. And when they got to the river's bank the


  youngest got upon a stone to watch for the coming of the boats. And her


  sister, coming behind her, caught her round the waist and dashed her into


  the rushing mill-stream of Binnorie.

“O sister, sister, reach me your hand!” she cried, as she floated away,

  “and you shall have half of all I've got or shall get.”

“No, sister, I'll reach you no hand of mine, for I am the heir to all your

  land. Shame on me if I touch the hand that has come 'twixt me and my own


  heart's love.”

“O sister, O sister, then reach me your glove!” she cried, as she floated

  further away, “and you shall have your William again.”

“Sink on,” cried the cruel princess, “no hand or glove of mine you'll

  touch. Sweet William will be all mine when you are sunk beneath the bonny


  mill-stream of Binnorie.” And she turned and went home to the king's


  castle.

And the princess floated down the mill-stream, sometimes swimming and

  sometimes sinking, till she came near the mill. Now the miller's daughter


  was cooking that day, and needed water for her cooking. And as she went to


  draw it from the stream, she saw something floating towards the mill-dam,


  and she called out, “Father! father! draw your dam. There's something


  white—a merry maid or a milk-white swan—coming down the


  stream.” So the miller hastened to the dam and stopped the heavy cruel


  mill-wheels. And then they took out the princess and laid her on the bank.

Fair and beautiful she looked as she lay there. In her golden hair were

  pearls and precious stones; you could not see her waist for her golden


  girdle; and the golden fringe of her white dress came down over her lily


  feet. But she was drowned, drowned!

And as she lay there in her beauty a famous harper passed by the mill-dam

  of Binnorie, and saw her sweet pale face. And though he travelled on far


  away he never forgot that face, and after many days he came back to the


  bonny mill-stream of Binnorie. But then all he could find of her where


  they had put her to rest were her bones and her golden hair. So he made a


  harp out of her breast-bone and her hair, and travelled on up the hill


  from the mill-dam of Binnorie, till he came to the castle of the king her


  father.

That night they were all gathered in the castle hall to hear the great

  harper—king and queen, their daughter and son, Sir William and all


  their Court. And first the harper sang to his old harp, making them joy


  and be glad or sorrow and weep just as he liked. But while he sang he put


  the harp he had made that day on a stone in the hall. And presently it


  began to sing by itself, low and clear, and the harper stopped and all


  were hushed.

And this was what the harp sung:

“O yonder sits my father, the king,

Binnorie, O Binnorie;

And yonder sits my mother, the queen;

By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie,

“And yonder stands my brother Hugh,

Binnorie, O Binnorie;

And by him, my William, false and true;

By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.”

Then they all wondered, and the harper told them how he had seen the

  princess lying drowned on the bank near the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie,


  and how he had afterwards made this harp out of her hair and breast-bone.


  Just then the harp began singing again, and this was what it sang out loud


  and clear:

“And there sits my sister who drownèd me

By the bonny mill-dams o' Binnorie.”

And the harp snapped and broke, and never sang more.