“What! these three whom I have just pardoned? Ah, sorely I repent that I forgave them! I would give a thousand pounds if I could have them hanged all three; but I cannot.”
The King’s Test
As the king read the letters his anger and surprise increased. It seemed impossible that three men should overawe a whole town, should slay sheriff, justice, mayor, and nearly every official in the town, forge a royal letter with the king’s seal, and then lock the gates and escape safely. There was no doubt of the fact, and the king raged impotently against his own foolish mercy in giving them a free pardon. It had been granted, however, and he could do nought but grieve over the ruin they had wrought in Carlisle. At last he sprang up, for he could endure the banquet no longer.
“Call my archers to go to the butts,” he commanded. “I will see these bold outlaws shoot, and try if their archery is so fine as men say.”
Accordingly the king’s archers and the queen’s archers arrayed themselves, and the three yeomen took their bows and looked well to their silken bowstrings; and then all made their way to the butts where the targets were set up. The archers shot in turn, aiming at an ordinary target, but Cloudeslee soon grew weary of this childish sport, and said aloud: “I shall never call a man a good archer who shoots at a target as large as a buckler. We have another sort of butt in my country, and that is worth shooting at.”
William of Cloudeslee’s Archery
“Make ready your own butts,” the king commanded, and the three outlaws went to a bush in a field close by and returned bearing hazel-rods, peeled and shining white. These rods they set up at four hundred yards apart, and, standing by one, they said to the king: “We should account a man a fair archer if he could split one wand while standing beside the other.” “It cannot be done; the feat is too great,” exclaimed the king. “Sire, I can easily do it,” quoth Cloudeslee, and, taking aim very carefully, he shot, and the arrow split the wand in two. “In truth,” said the king, “you are the best archer I have ever seen. Can you do greater wonders?” “Yes,” quoth Cloudeslee, “one thing more I can do, but it is a more difficult feat. Nevertheless I will try it, to show you our North Country shooting.” “Try, then,” the king replied; “but if you fail you shall be hanged without mercy, because of your boasting.”
Cloudeslee Shoots the Apple from his Son’s Head
Now Cloudeslee stood for a few moments as if doubtful of himself, and the South Country archers watched him, hoping for a chance to retrieve their defeat, when William suddenly said: “I have a son, a dear son, seven years of age. I will tie him to a stake and place an apple on his head. Then from a distance of a hundred and twenty yards I will split the apple in two with a broad arrow.” “By heaven!” the king cried, “that is a dreadful feat. Do as you have said, or by Him who died on the Cross I will hang you high. Do as you have said, but if you touch one hair of his head, or the edge of his gown, I will hang you and your two companions.” “I have never broken my pledged word,” said the North Country bowman, and he at once made ready for the terrible trial. The stake was set in the ground, the boy tied to it, with his face turned from his father, lest he should give a start and destroy his aim. Cloudeslee then paced the hundred and twenty yards, anxiously felt his string, bent his bow, chose his broadest arrow, and fitted it with care.
