Kitabı oku: «Самые известные английские легенды / The Most Famous English Legends», sayfa 18

William of Cloudeslee⁸¹

In the green forest of Englewood, in the “North Country”, not far from the fortified town ofCarlisle⁸², lived a merry band of outlaws. They were not villains, but sturdy archers and yeomen, whose outlawry had been caused only by shooting the king’s deer. The royal claim to exclusive hunting in the vast forests of Epping, Sherwood, Needwood, Barnesdale, Englewood, and many others seemed preposterous to the yeomen who lived on the borders of the forests, and they took their risks and shot the deer and ate it, convinced that they were wronging no one and risking only their own lives. Thus it happened that they were accused of that “crime”, which legally made them outlaws.

The outlaws of Englewood were under the headship of three famous archers, brothers-in-arms, who swore to stand by each other, though they were not brothers in blood. Their names were Adam Bell, William of Cloudeslee, andClym⁸³ of the Cleugh; and of the three William of Cloudeslee alone was married. His wife, fair Alice of Cloudeslee, lived in a strong house within the walls of Carlisle, with her three children, because they were not included in William’s outlawry. It was possible, therefore, for her to send her husband warning of any attack planned by the Sheriff of Carlisle on the outlaws, and she had saved him and his comrades from surprise several times already.

When the spring came, and the forest was beautiful with its fresh green leaves, William began to miss his home and family; he had not dared to go into Carlisle for some time, and it was more than six months since he had seen his wife’s face. So he announced his intention to his home, at the risk of capture by his old enemy the Sheriff. In vain his comrades tried to make him stay. Adam Bell especially urged him remain in the greenwood: “If the sheriff or the justice learn that you are in the town, your life will end soon. Stay with us, and we will fetch you tidings of your wife.”

William replied: “No, I must go myself; I cannot rest content with tidings only. If all is well I will return by tomorrow morning, and if I don’t you may be sure I am taken or killed; and I pray you guard my family well, if that be so.”

William made his way unobserved into the town and came to his wife’s house. It was shut, with doors strongly bolted, and he had to knock long on the window before his wife opened it to see who was the visitor. “Let me in quickly, my Alice,” he said. “I have come to see you and my three children. How have you been this long time?”

“Alas!” she replied, hurriedly letting him in, and bolting the door again, “why have you come now, risking your life to have news of us? Don’t you know that this house has been watched for more than six months, so eager are the sheriff and the justice to capture and hang you? I would have come to you in the forest, orsent you word⁸⁴ of our welfare. I fear – oh, how I fear! – that they will know!”

“But now that I am here, let us be merry,” said William. “No man has seen me enter, and I would like enjoy my short stay with you and my children, for I must be back in the forest by morning. Can you not give a hungry outlaw some food and drink?”

Then Dame Alice prepared the best she had for her husband; and, when all was ready, it was a very happy family that sat down to the meal, husband and wife talking cheerfully together, while the children watched in wondering silence the father who had been away so long and came to them so seldom.

There was one inhabitant of the house who saw in William’s return a means of making shameful profit. She was an old bedridden woman, apparently paralysed, whom he had saved from complete poverty seven years before. During all that time she had lain on a bed near the fire, had shared all the life of the family, and had never once moved from her couch. Now, while husband and wife talked together and the room got dark, this old impostor slipped from her bed and glided quietly out of the house.