CXXXIV
‘How fareth my Justice,’ sayd the Kynge,
‘And my Sheryfe also?’—
‘Syr, they be slayne, without leasynge,
And many an officer mo.’—
CXXXV
‘Who hath them slayne,’ sayd the Kynge,
‘Anone that thou tell me.’—
‘Adam Bell, and Clym of the Clough,
And Wyllyam of Cloudesley.’—
CXXXVI
‘Alas for rewth!’ then sayd our Kynge:
‘My herte is wonderous sore;
I had lever than a thousande pounde,
I had knowne of thys before;
CXXXVII
‘For I have y-graunted them grace,
And that forthynketh[698] me:
But had I knowne all thys before,
They had been hangèd all thre.’
CXXXVIII
The Kyng hee opened the letter anone,
Himselfe he red it thro,
And founde how these outlàwes had slain
Thre hundred men and mo: