And bound therto his eldest sonne,

And bad hym stand styll thereat;
And turned the childes face him fro,
Because he should not start.

An apple upon his head he set,
And then his bowe he bent:
Syxe score paces they were meaten,'
And thether Cloudeslè went.

There he drew out a fayre brode arrowe,
Hys bowe was great and longe,
He set that arrowe in his bowe,
That was both styffe and stronge.

He prayed the people, that wer there,
That they all still wold stand,
For he that shoteth for such a wager
Behoveth a stedfast hand.

Muche people prayed for Cloudeslè,
That his lyfe saved myght be,
And whan he made hym redy to shote,
There was many weeping ee.

1 Measured.

A similar story is told by Saxo Grammaticus of Palnatoki, the founder of the pirate city of Jomsburg, in Pomerania; his skill in archery was never equalled in the North; and he was accustomed to boast that he could hit an apple, however small, on the top of a pole: this boast at length reached Harald Blaatand, who insisted that the archer's own child should supply the place of the pole; the apple was

But Cloudeslè clefte the apple in two,

His sonne he did not nee.

Over Gods forbode, sayde the kinge
That thou shold shote at me.2

I geve thee eightene pence a day,
And my bowe shalt thou bere,
And over all the north countrè
I make the chyfe rydère.

And I thyrtene pence a day, said the quene,
By God, and by my fay ;3

Come feche thy payment when thou wylt,
No man shall say the nay.

Wyllyam, I make the a gentleman
Of clothyng, and of fe:

And thy two brethren, yemen of my chambre,

For they are so semely to se.

Your sonne, for he is tendre of age,

Of my wyne-seller he shall be;
And when he commeth to mans estate,
Better avaunced shall he be.

cloven, whilst the child remained uninjured; but the archer had three arrows, and being asked what he had intended to do with the remaining two, he replied, that had he been the cause of his child's death, the guilty contriver of the experiment should not have escaped.—Saxo Gramm. lib. x. Dunham, vol. i. p. 113. Saxo wrote a full century before the

time of William Tell.

3 Faith.

And Wyllyam, bring me your wife, said the quene,

Me longeth her sore to se:
She shall be my chefe gentlewoman,

To governe my nurserye.

The yemen thanked them all curteously.
To some byshop wyl we wend,
Of all the synnes, that we have done
To be assoyld at his hand.

So forth be gone these good yemen,
As fast as they might hye;

And after came and dwelled with the kynge,
And dyed good men all thre.

Thus endeth the lives of these good yemen;
God send them eternall blysse;

And all, that with hand-bowe shoteth;
That of heven may never mysse.

HE

KING ESTMERE.'

EARKEN to me, gentlemen,
Come and you shall heare;

Ile tell you of two of the boldest brethren

That ever borne y-were.

The tone of them was Adler younge,
The tother was kyng Estmere;
They were as bolde men in their deeds,
As any were farr and neare.

As they were drinking ale and wine
Within kyng Estmeres halle:
When will ye marry a wyfe, brother,
A wyfe to glad us all?

Then bespake him kyng Estmere,
And answered him hastilee:
I know not that ladye in any land
That's able' to marrye with mee.

Kyng Adland hath a daughter, brother,
Men call her bright and sheene;
If I were kyng here in your stead,
That ladye shold be my queene.

Saies, Reade me, reade me, deare brother,
Throughout merry England,
Where we might find a messenger

Betwixt us two to sende.

Saies, You shal ryde yourselfe, brother,

Ile beare you companye;

Many throughe fals messengers are deceived,
And I feare lest soe shold wee.

Thus they renisht them to ryde

Of twoe good renisht steeds,"

And when they came to king Adlands halle,
Of redd gold shone their weeds.

1 Fit.

2 Perhaps a derivation from reniteo, to shine.-Percy. It is more probably a Teutonic word.