noyse therat,
And to the gate faste he thronge.

57.
'Who is there now,' sayde the porter,
'That maketh all this knockinge?'
'We be two messengers,' sayd Clim of the Clough,
'Be comen streyght from our kyng.'

58.
'We have a letter,' sayd Adam Bell,
'To the justice we must it bryng;
Let us in our message to do,
That we were agayne to our kyng.'

59.
'Here commeth no man in,' sayd the porter,
'By hym that dyed on a tre,
Tyll a false thefe be hanged
Called Wyllyam of Cloudesle.'

60.
Than spake that good yeman Clym of the Clough,
And swore by Mary fre,
'If that we stande long wythout,
Lyke a thefe hanged shalt thou be.

61.
'Lo! here we have got the kynges seale:
What, lordane, art thou wode?'
The porter had wende it had ben so,
And lyghtly dyd off hys hode.

62.
'Welcome be my lordes seale,' saide he;
'For that ye shall come in.'
He opened the gate right shortly:
An evyl openyng for him!

63.
'Now we are in,' sayde Adam Bell,
'Therof we are full faine;
But Christ knoweth, that harowed hell,
How we shall com out agayne.'

64.
'Had we the keys,' said Clim of the Clough,
'Ryght wel than shoulde we spede,
Than might we come out wel ynough
Whan we se tyme and nede.'

65.
They called the porter to a councell,
And wrong his necke in two,
And caste hym in a depe dongeon,
And toke the keys hym fro.

66.
'Now am I porter,' sayd Adam Bel,
'Se, brother, the keys have we here,
The worst porter to mery Carlile
That ye had thys hondreth yere.

67.
'Now wyll we our bowes bend,
Into the towne wyll we go,
For to delyver our dere brother,
Where he lyeth in care and wo.'

68.
Then they bent theyr good yew bowes,
And loked theyr stringes were round;
The markett place of mery Carlile
They beset in that stound.

69.
And, as they loked them besyde,
A paire of new galowes there they see,
And the justice with a quest of squyers,
That judged William hanged to be.

70.
And Cloudesle hymselfe lay ready in a cart
Fast bound both fote and hand;
And a stronge rope about hys necke,
All readye for to be hangde.

71.
The justice called to him a ladde,
Cloudesles clothes shold he have,
To take the measure of that good yoman,
And thereafter to make hys grave.

72.
'I have sene as great a