"Female Drummer" lyrics - STEELEYE SPAN

I was brought up in Yorkshire and when I was sixteen
Oh I ran away to London and a soldier I became

[Chorus:]
With me fine cap and feather, likewise me rattling drum
They learned me to play upon the rub-a-dub-a-dum
With me gentle waist so slender, me fingers long and small
And to play upon the rub-a-dub the best of them all

And so many were the pranks that I saw among the french
And so boldly did I fight me boys although I'm but a wench
And in buttoning up me trousers so often have I smiled
To think I lay with a thousand men and a maiden all the while

[Chorus]

And they never found my secret out until this very hour
When they sent me off to London to keep sentry o'er the Tower
When a young girl fell in love with me and she found that I was a maid
She went up to me officer me secret she betrayed

[Chorus]

He unbuttoned then my red tunic and he found that it was true
'It's a shame, he says, 'to lose a pretty drummer boy like you
So now I must return to me mum and dad at home
And along with me bold comrades it's no longer can I roam

[Chorus]