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,
    Am     G/B      Dm      Am
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;
     Dm          G      C   G/B      Am                   G/B
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,
    Am     G/B    Dm         Am
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;
    Dm        G           C  G/B      Am                    G/B
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,
Am         G/B      Dm        Am
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;
    Dm      G        C   G\B      Am                   G
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
      Dm      G         C   G/B
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;
        Dm         G           C   G/B
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
Am                      G
(Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight!)
         Am           G/B         Dm             Am
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,
         Dm         G       C G/B   Am                 G/B
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
     Am       G/B      Dm           Am
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

     Am                                 C         G
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
       Dm   G            C   G/B        Am               G/B
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
          Dm       G     C  G/B
There was death at every window
    Am               G
And hell at one dark window;
    Am         G/B              Dm
For Bess could see, through the casement,
    Am
The road that he would ride.

         Am                             C      G          Am
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
         Am                                  C        G/B       Am
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
      Dm     G      C   G/B
"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,
      Am               G
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
    Am         G/B    Dm
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!
    Am        G/B             Dm
The red-coats looked to their priming!
    Am
She stood up straight and still!

    Am                             C           G       Am
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,
Am            G/B           Dm            Am
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!
    Dm       G       C     G/B     Am                G/B
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
    Dm        G          C    G/B
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,

    Am                    G
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
    Am              G/B         Dm             Am
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!
      Dm           G            C      G          Am                 G
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
           Dm      G           C   G
When they shot him down on the highway,
Am                     G
Down like a dog on the highway,
       Am         G/B          Dm                Am
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,
         Dm        G         C   G     Am              G/B
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.