Waterloo

It happened on a Wednesday in the lovely month of June
I went for to convince my love, all in her youthful bloom
Where the press gang lay in ambush and up to me they drew
And the very next day we marched away to fight at Waterloo

It happened on a Wednesday, the day I put on my dress
...
My waistcoat of the scarlet, my hat and feather too
And that very next day we marched away to fight at Waterloo

The day we fought at Waterloo it was a bitter blast
It was by our honorable captain, we was ordered to Belfast
And when we got to Belfast town , those words I heard him say
"I'm very much in doubt, my boys, that we won't gain the day."

...
...
Our captain cries, " My heroes brave, come keep your courage true,
And I hope to God we gain the day we fights at Waterloo

At four o'clock in the afternoon we was ordered on the plains
At eight o'clock that evening the bloody fight began
The first shot took my arm from me, so loudly I did bawl
And the very next shot took my leg from me, then I was forced to fall.

I laid down on those weary plains to rest my aching bones
...
...
Where ofttimes I cried and wished I 'd died that night in Waterloo

It was when my comrades' day's work was done 'twas up to me they drew.
Out of eighteen hundred heroes brave we only lost but two
...
Where we made them yell and quit the field that night at Waterloo

It was by our honorable captain we was ordered on the cars
We had to go on horses' backs the distance been so far
I thought you were strong-limbed when first you leaved your dear,
But now you deserves a pension of thirty pound a year

DT #815
Laws J2
From Greenleaf, Ballads and Songs of Newfoundland
Collected from Daniel Endacott, Sally's Cove, 1929
SOF
oct96