Fille Du Roy

Twenty young women were there on the dock

From an orphanage East of Paris

Girls without fathers now King Louis' daughters

Who'd chosen to cross the wide sea

Nervous and hopeful, no strangers to toil

They'll do well in the new lives they'll lead

As honourable wives in a place called Quebec

They're not meant for a sailor like me

Nineteen young women asleep in their bunks

But one up on deck here with me

She's watching the stars with the wind in hair

And she tells me her name is Marie

No stranger to laughter, no stranger to joy

And a spirit as wild as the sea

She'll make a man happy in distant Quebec

But he won't be a sailor like me

Thirty long days from the broad (something in French)

And the other girls scarce have been seen

But Marie's gone and learned all the terms of the trade

And her feet found the roll of the sea

All the boys love her and everyone jokes

That her smiles carry more than I've seen

I don't know what she wants in la vil de Quebec

But she can't want a sailor like me.

But I've borrowed a ring from my friend Tiroberre

And the boys have all left us alone

And I've asked what she'd think of a life in the town

And a husband who's not always home

Then she's laughed and she's kissed me

And told me that love is more precious than land on la vil

Thank God that she chose to go out to Quebec

And she wanted a sailor like me