User:Visviva/Trooper and Maid

The Trooper and the Maid, or The Trumpet Sounds at Burreldales, is a traditional ballad about a soldier abandoning his sexual partner. It originated as a muster song in the Jacobite rising of 1715. Versions have been recorded worldwide, and have undergone various modifications through the folk process.

Synopsis
A cavalryman goes to bed with a woman. Depending on the version, they may be freshly acquainted or have an existing relationship. When the trumpet (or bugle) sounds in the morning, he tells her he must leave. Depending on the version, she may follow him. She may be or become pregnant. When she asks him when he will return, he names one or more impossible conditions, such as "when seas run dry" or "when cockle shells grow silver bells".

Themes
"The Trooper and the Maid" is one of numerous "amorous ballads on soldiers and maidens". Common ballad themes dealt with in "The Trooper and the Maid" include rejected love, lovers' separation, and pregnancy.

In some versions the lovers are awakened not by a trumpet or bugle, but by the crowing of a rooster, a common motif in night visiting songs.

Versions
In the United States, traditional versions have been recorded from Maine to the Ozarks. An Indiana version combined verses from "The Trooper and the Maid" with verses from the murder ballad Young Hunting.