button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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Page 113:-

The usher sayde, Yemen, what would ye have, I pray you tell to me;
You myht thus make offycers shent, good Syr of whence be ye?
Syr we be out-lawes of the forest, cartayne withouten lease,
And hether we be come to our Kyng, to gett us a charter of peace.

And when they came before the Kyng, as it was the lawes of the lande,
They knelled downe without lettyng, and eche held up his hand.
The sayd, Lorde, we beseche the here, that ye will grant us grace,
For we have slayne your fatt follow-dere in many a sondry place.

What be your names, then said our Kyng, anone that you tell me?
The said, Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
Be ye those theves? then said our kyng, that men have told of to me?
Here to God I make a vowe, ye shall be hanged all thre.

But good lorde, we beseche you now, that ye graunt to us grace,
In so much as frely to you we com in, as frely fro you to pass;
With such weapons as we have here, tyll we be out of your place,
And yf we lyve thys hundreth year, we will ask you no grace.

Ye speake proudly, sayd the Kynge, ye shall be hanged all three;
That were great pity, then sayd the Queene, yf any grace myght be:
My lorde whan I came first ynto thys lande to be your wedded wyfe,
The fyrst boone that I wold aske, ye wold grant it me be lyfe.

And I never asked none tyll now, then good lorde graunt it me.
Now ask yt Madam, sayd the Kyng, and granted yt shall be.
Then my good Lorde I you beseche, these yemen graunt ye me;
Madame ye myght have asked a boone that should have been worth them all thre,

Ye myght have asked towres and townes, parkes and forestes plente!
But none so pleasant to my pay, she sayd, nor none so lefe to me.
Madame, sith it is your desyre, your askyng graunted shall be;
But I had lever have geven you good market townes thre.

The Queene was a glad woman, and said, Lord gramarcye!
I dare undertake for them, that true men they shall be.
But, good my Lorde, speke som mery word, that comfort they may se.
I graunt you grace, then sayd our Kyng, washe felos, and to meate go ye.

They had not setten but a whyle certayne, withouten lesynge,
There came messengers out of the North wyth letters to ur Kynge.
And when they came before the Kynge, they knelt down on theyr knee,
Sayd, Lord, your officers grete you well of Carleyle in the North cuntri.

How fareth my justyce, sayd the Kynge, and my sheryfe also?
Syr, they be slayne, without lesynge, and many an officer mo.
Who hath them slayne, sayd the Kynge, anone thou tell to me?
"Adam Bell, Clyme of he Clough, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle."

Alas! for rewth, then sayd our Kynge, my harte is wondrous sore!
I had lever than a thousand pounde I had knowne of this before.
For I have granted to them grace, and that for thynketh me;
But had I known all this before, the had been hanged all thre.
The
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