"Who hath them slain?" then said the King,
"Anon thou tell-e me."--
"Adam Bell, and Clym of the Clough,
And William of Cloudeslie."--

"Alas, for ruth!" then said our King,
"My heart is wondrous sore;
I had liever than a thousand pound
I had known of this before;
For I have y-granted them grace,
And that forthinketh me:
But had I known all this before,
They had been hanged all three."--

The King he opened the letter anon,
Himself he read it tho,
And found how these three outlaws had slain
Three hundred men and mo;
First the Justice and the Sheriff,
And the Mayor of Carlisle town,
Of all the const-ables and catchipolls
Alive were left but one;

The bailiffs and the bedels both,
And the serjeants of the law,
And forty fosters of the fee,
These outlaws have they slaw;
And broken his parks, and slain his deer,
Over all they chose the best,
So perilous outlaws as they were,
Walked not by east nor west.

When the King this letter had read,
In his heart he sigh-ed sore:
"Take up the table," anon he bade:
"For I may eat no more."
The King called his best archers
To the butts with him to go;
"I will see these fellows shoot," he said,
"That in the north have wrought this woe."

The King-es bowmen busk them blive,
And the Queen's archers also,
So did these three wight yeomen;
With them they thought to go.
There twice or thrice they shot about,
For to assay their hand;
There was no shot these yeomen shot,
That any prick might them stand.

Then spake William of Cloudeslie:
"By Him that for me died,
I hold him never no good archer,
That shooteth at butts so wide."--
"Whereat, then?" said our King,
"I pray thee tell to me."--
"At such a butt, sir," he said,
"As men use in my countree."--

William went into the field,
And his two brothers with him,
There they set up two hazel rods,
Twenty score paces between.
"I hold him an archer," said Cloudeslie,
"That yonder wand cleaveth in two."--
"Here is none such," said the King,
"For no man that can so do."

"I shall assay, sir," said Cloudeslie,
"Ere that I farther go."
Cloudeslie with a bearing arrow
Clave the wand in two.
"Thou art th