Gypsy Rose McRae
Set against a backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, this is a tale of love, loss, betrayal and murder.
There’s a tall ship in the harbour and the captain’s hailing me
Offering conveyance to a new world colony
And if I fail to heed his call then all that waits for me
Is fifteen years in London jail bereft of liberty
For I have shot a man today, killed him in a fight
Took him with my pistol in the early morning light
And I will rue the morning on the thirteenth day of May
When first I set my eyes upon the Gypsy Rose McRae
In May of 1814 and with nothing to my name
After ten years fighting Boney over Portugal and Spain
I sailed home into Plymouth dock and bid my friends farewell
Set off down the road that leads where no one can you tell
I fell in with the travelling folk and roamed the southern land
There I met a gypsy girl and asked for her sweet hand
Her skin was like the August moon, white as winter’s day
I didn’t stand a chance when I saw Gypsy Rose McRae
Now Rosie had her own ideas of fortune and of fame
She took up with a wealthy man who promised her the same
And I could not compete with such a man so well at heel
I’d lost all that I had on a Spanish battlefield
But still I had my pistol so I rose and called him out
Met him in the early dawn to pay the full account
There it was I laid him down beside a misty bay
No chance now of seeing the Gypsy Rose McRae
And six months after coming home I’ve put to sea again
This time not for Wellington nor Portugal or Spain
It’s half way round the world for me a virgin colony
I will have my freedom but old England I’ll not see
But I just can’t forget her face a bitter memory
I’m wanted by the law it would be London jail for me
And I will rue the morning on the thirteenth day of May
When first I set my eyes upon the Gypsy Rose McRae