He straightway assures the three offenders, that if they do not prevail over every one of his own bowmen, their lives shall be forfeited.
“Then they all bent their good yew bows,
Looked that their strings were rownd,
And twice or thrice they shot their shafts
Full deftly in that stound.
“Then out spoke William of Cloudeslea,
‘By him that for me died,
I hold him not a good archer
That shoots at butt so wide.’
“‘Whereat, I crave,’ then said the King,