Kate Rusby
"The Queen And The Soldier"

A soldier came knocking upon the Queen's door.
He said, "I am not fighting for you anymore."
And the Queen know she'd seen his face some place before
And slowly she led him inside.
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill,
But I'm leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will,
Only first I am asking you 'Why?'"
Down a long, narrow hall he was led,
Into her room with her tapestries red,
And she never once took the crown from her head,
And she asked him then to sit down.
He said,"I see you now and you are so very young,
But I've seen more battles lost than I've seen battles won
And I've got this intuition says it's all for your fun
So now will you tell me, 'Why?'"

Well the young Queen she fixed him with an arrogant eye,
She said, "You won't understand and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's and he thought she would cry
And she closed herself up like a fan.
She said, "I have swallowed a secret thread,
It cuts me inside and often I've bled,
And he laid his hands then on the top of her head
And he bowed her down to ground.
"Tell me, how hungry are you, how weak you must feel
As you are living here alone and you are never revealed,
I won't march again on your battlefield
And he took her to the window to see.

Well the sun it was gold thought the sky it was grey.
She wanted more than she ever could say
But she knoew how it frightened her and she turned away
And she would not look at his face again.
He said, "I want to live as an honest man,
To get all I deserve and the give all I can,
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your Highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown it had fallen and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed, of how her heart ached,
And she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait,
She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed still waiting for her word.
While the Queen went on strangling in the solitude she prefered.
The battle continued on.

A soldier came knocking upon the Queen's door.
He said, "I am not fighting for you anymore."
And the Queen know she'd seen his face some place before
And slowly she led him inside.