The Highwayman chords by Loreena Mckennitt

Capo on 3rd (how I play it)

Intro: Am Am7 C G Am

Strumming pattern for intro: Am || Am7 | C ||| G ||| Am |||

Verse:

Am                 C    G   Am
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
Am                  C    G   Am
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
Dm       G     C     G
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
    Dm   G    C
And the highwayman came riding,
G

Riding, riding,
  Am   C    G     Dm
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

    Am                  C    G      Am
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
  Am            C      G     Am
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
   Dm     G   C      G
They fitted with nary a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh
    Dm     G    C
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
  G
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
  Am   C   G      Dm
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Am                C       G  Am
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
Am                        C    G     Am
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
  Dm    G      C      G
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there?
    Dm     G      C
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
G
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Am     C    G      Dm
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

   Am               C    G    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
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
   Dm   G     C
Then look for me by the moonlight,
G
Watch for me by the moonlight,
   Am   C      G         Dm
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   Am
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
    Dm    G   C      G
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
    Dm     G      C
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
G
(Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight!)
     Am      C      G        Dm
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

INTRO X2

  Am               C    G    Am
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
  Am             C    G      Am
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
     Dm     G    C    G
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
 Dm    G     C
A red-coat troop came marching,
G
Marching, marching
   Am    C    G      Dm
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
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed
Dm     G      C       G
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
     Dm    G   C
There was death at every window
  G
And hell at one dark window;
  Am     C         G
For Bess could see, through the casement,
  Dm
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     Am
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
   Dm    G        C
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
  G
She heard the dead man say
Dm    G     C
"Look for me by the moonlight
G
Watch for me by the moonlight
   Am   C     G         Dm
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    Am
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
   Dm      G        C        G
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
   Dm     G     C
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
G
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
  Am     C   G
The tip of one finger touched it!
  Dm
The trigger at least was hers!

INTRO X2

Am                   C    G      Am
Totelot-totelot! Had they heard it? The horse's hooves rang clear
Am                      C       G    Am
Totelot-totelot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Dm    G     C     G
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
  Dm   G    C
The highwayman came riding,
G
Riding, riding!
  Am    C        G
The red-coats looked to their priming!
   Dm
She stood up straight and still!

Am                 C      G    Am
Totelot in the frosty silence! Totelot, in the echoing night!
Am               C    G    Am
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
   Dm    G     C      G
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
     Dm   G      C
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
  G
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Am      C       G       Dm
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.

INTRO x2

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

  G
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
  Am       C      G       Am
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Am               C      G      Am
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
Am                       C   G     Am
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
   Dm      G      C           G
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
      Dm   G      C
When they shot him down on the highway,
   G
Down like a dog on the highway,
    Am     C      G         Dm
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

INTRO X4

   Am                   C    G   Am
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
     Am                 C    G   Am
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
     Dm    G     C     G
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
 Dm   G    C
A highwayman comes riding,
G
Riding, riding,
 Am     C   G     Dm
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

INTRO X4