The Butcher's Bill

[Verse 1 — Frame In] I'm an old man now with shaking hands You ask me what I done in war I'll tell you true, though no one understands What I become on Scotland's shore [Verse 2 — The Charge] I was nineteen when I took the shilling A baker's boy who'd done no killing They said the Highlanders was coming down To rape our women, and burn each town I seen them come running down the hill Screaming demons who maim and kill I pissed meself and stood like stone While Johnnie Watts was cut to the bone [Verse 3 — Culloden] At Culloden we had the guns We mowed them down, those savage ones For every mate what they had killed I thanked the Lord to see blood spilled Savages, animals, so we was told And savages I did behold After what they done ... what I saw I didn't think of them as men at all [Verse 4 — The Wounded] "No quarter, boys," the order come "Finish what's still breathing there" I done what I was told to do I never stopped to think or care But one looks up, a lad like me Mud on his face and blood in his hair He said "Màthair" as I stuck him through I hear that word everywhere (pause) [Verse 5 — The Hunt] We hunted them through the glens for weeks Through the bogs and over stone The screaming devils what had charged us Now crawling, starving, all alone Some lads made sport of it for coin A shilling for a rebel's ear The men what made me piss meself Now wept and begged for mercy here [Verse 6 — The Villages] I thought we'd find their rebel gold The savage chiefs were said to hold I found a dirt floor in those poor places Women and babes with hungry faces We burned it all, them was the orders Drove them out beyond the borders I watched them flee into the rain [slower, sad] Just terrified and poor and plain [Verse 7 — The Reckoning] They told me I was killing savages Beasts what only looked like men But I know what I done out there I know what I become by the end Cumberland, they call him Butcher But he kept his hands clean, gave orders still I'm the one what done the killing And I'm the one what pays the bill [Verse 8 — Frame Out] So if you see an old redcoat With shaking hands and hollow eyes He's paying off the Butcher's Bill And it's a debt that never dies