An evil open-ing for him.
"Now are we in," said Adam Bell,
"Thereof we are full fain,
But Christ he knoweth, that harrowed hell,
How we shall come out again."

"Had we the keys," said Clym of the Clough,
"Right well then should we speed;
Then might we come out well enough
When we see time and need."
They called the porter to a couns-el,
And wrung his neck in two,
And cast him in a deep dunge-on,
And took the keys him fro.

"Now am I porter," said Adam Bell;
"See, brother, the keys have we here;
The worst port-er to merry Carlisle
They have had this hundred year:
And now will we our bow-es bend,
Into the town will we go,
For to deliver our dear broth-er,
That lieth in care and woe."

They bent their good yew bow-es,
And looked their strings were round,
The market-place of merry Carlisle
They beset in that stound;
And as they look-ed them beside,
A pair of new gallows there they see,