"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 the best archer," said the King, "Forsooth that ever I see."-- "And yet for your love," said William, "I will do more mastrie. "I have a son is seven year old; He is to me full dear; I will tie him to a stake, All shall see him that be here, And lay an apple upon his head, And go six score paces him fro, And I myself with a broad arrow Shall cleave the apple in two."-- "Now haste thee, then," said the King, "By him that died on a tree, But if thou do not as thou hast said, Hang-ed shalt thou be. An thou touch his head or gown, In sight that men may see, By all the saints that be in heaven, I shall you hang all three."--