Then spake good Adam Bell
To Clym of the Clough so free,
"Brother, see ye mark the Justice well;
Lo, yonder ye may him see;
And at the Sheriff shoot I will
Strongly with arrow keen."
A better shot in merry Carlisle
This seven year was not seen.

They loosed their arrows both at once,
Of no man had they drede;
The one hit the Justice, the other the Sheriff,
That both their sides gan bleed.
All men voided, that them stood nigh,
When the Justice fell to the ground,
And the Sheriff fell nigh him by,
Either had his death's wound.

All the citizens fast gan flee,
They durst no longer abide;
Then lightly they loos-ed Cloudeslie,
Where he with ropes lay tied.
William stert to an officer of the town,
His axe out of his hand he wrong,
On each-e side he smote them down,
Him thought he tarried too long.

William said to his brethren two:
"Together let us live and dee;
If e'er you have need, as I have now,