Chapter 2: Across The Border.
Chapter 3: At Alnwick.
Chapter 4: An Unequal Joust.
Chapter 5: A Mission.
Chapter 6: At Dunbar.
Chapter 7: Back To Hotspur.
Chapter 8: Ludlow Castle.
Chapter 9: The Welsh Rising.
Chapter 10: A Breach Of Duty.
Chapter 11: Bad News.
Chapter 12: A Dangerous Mission.
Chapter 13: Escape.
Chapter 14: In Hiding.
Chapter 15: Another Mission To Ludlow.
Chapter 16: A Letter For The King.
Chapter 17: Knighted.
Chapter 18: Glendower.
Chapter 19: The Battle Of Homildon Hill.
Chapter 20: The Percys' Discontent.
Chapter 21: Shrewsbury.
Preface.
The four opening years of the fifteenth century were among the most
stirring in the history of England. Owen Glendower carried fire and
slaughter among the Welsh marches, captured most of the strong places
held by the English, and foiled three invasions, led by the king
himself. The northern borders were invaded by Douglas; who, after
devastating a large portion of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham,
was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon, by the Earl
of Northumberland, and his son Hotspur. Then followed the strange and
unnatural coalition between the Percys, Douglas of Scotland, Glendower
of Wales, and Sir Edmund Mortimer--a coalition that would assuredly
have overthrown the king, erected the young Earl of March as a puppet
monarch under the tutelage of the Percys, and secured the independence
of Wales, had the royal forces arrived one day later at Shrewsbury, and
so allowed the confederate armies to unite.
King Henry's victory there, entailing the death of Hotspur and the
capture of Douglas, put an end to this formidable insurrection; for,
although the Earl of Northumberland twice subsequently raised the
banner of revolt, these risings were easily crushed; while Glendower's
power waned, and order, never again to be broken, was at length
restored in Wales. The continual state of unrest and chronic warfare,
between the inhabitants of both sides of the border, was full of
adventures as stirring and romantic as that in which the hero of the
story took part.
G. A. Henty.
Chapter 1: A Border Hold.
A lad was standing on the little lookout turret, on the top of a border
fortalice. The place was evidently built solely with an eye to defence,
comfort being an altogether secondary consideration. It was a square
building, of rough stone, the walls broken only by narrow loopholes;
and the door, which was ten feet above the ground, was reached by broad
wooden steps, which could be hauled up in case of necessity; and were,
in fact, raised every night.
The building was some forty feet square. The upper floor was divided
into several chambers, which were the sleeping places of its lord and
master, his family, and the women of the household. The floor below,
onto which the door from without opened, was undivided save by two rows
of stone pillars that supported the beams of the floor above. In one
corner the floor, some fifteen feet square, was raised somewhat above
the general level. This was set aside for the use of the master and the
family. The rest of the apartment was used as the living and sleeping
room of the followers, and hinds, of the fortalice.
The basement--which, although on a level with the ground outside, could
be approached only by a trapdoor and ladder from the room above--was
the storeroom, and contained sacks of barley and oatmeal, sides of
bacon, firewood, sacks of beans, and trusses of hay for the use of the
horses and cattle, should the place have to stand a short siege. In the
centre was a well.
The roof of the house was flat, and paved with square blocks of stone;
a parapet three feet high surrounded it. In the centre was the lookout
tower, rising twelve feet above it; and over the door another turret,
projecting some eighteen inches beyond the wall of the house, slits
being cut in the stone floor through which missiles could be dropped,
or boiling lead poured, upon any trying to assault the entrance.
Outside was a courtyard, extending round the house. It was some ten
yards across, and surrounded by a wall twelve feet high, with a square
turret at each corner.
Everything was roughly constructed, although massive and solid. With
the exception of the door, and the steps leading to it, no wood had
been used in the construction. The very beams were of rough stone, the
floors were of the same material. It was clearly the object of the
builders to erect a fortress that could defy fire, and could only be
destroyed at the cost of enormous labour.
This was indeed a prime necessity, for the hold stood in the wild
country between the upper waters of the Coquet and the Reed river.
Harbottle and Longpikes rose but a few miles away, and the whole
country was broken up by deep ravines and valleys, fells and crags.
From the edge of the moorland, a hundred yards from the outer wall, the
ground dropped sharply down into the valley, where the two villages of
Yardhope lay on a little burn running into the Coquet.
In other directions the moor extended for a distance of nearly a mile.
On this two or three score of cattle, and a dozen shaggy little horses,
were engaged in an effort to keep life together, upon the rough herbage
that grew among the heather and blocks of stones, scattered everywhere.
Presently the lad caught sight of the flash of the sun, which had but
just risen behind him, on a spearhead at the western edge of the moor.
He ran down at once, from his post, to the principal room.
"They are coming, Mother," he exclaimed. "I have just seen the sun
glint on a spearhead."
"I trust that they are all there," she said, and then turned to two
women by the fire, and bade them put on more wood and get the pots
boiling.
"Go up again, Oswald; and, as soon as you can make out your father's
figure, bring me down news. I have not closed an eye for the last two
nights, for 'tis a more dangerous enterprise than usual on which they
have gone."
"Father always comes home all right, Mother," the boy said confidently,
"and they have a strong band this time. They were to have been joined
by Thomas Gray and his following, and Forster of Currick, and John
Liddel, and Percy Hope of Bilderton. They must have full sixty spears.
The Bairds are like to pay heavily for their last raid hither."
Dame Forster did not reply, and Oswald ran up again to the lookout. By
this time the party for whom he was watching had reached the moor. It
consisted of twelve or fourteen horsemen, all clad in dark armour,
carrying very long spears and mounted on small, but wiry, horses. They
were driving before them a knot of some forty or fifty cattle, and
three of them led horses carrying heavy burdens. Oswald's quick eye
noticed that four of the horsemen were not carrying their spears.
"They are three short of their number," he said to himself, "and those
four must all be sorely wounded. Well, it might have been worse."
Oswald had been brought up to regard forays and attacks as ordinary
incidents of life. Watch and ward were always kept in the little
fortalice, especially when the nights were dark and misty, for there
was never any saying when a party of Scottish borderers might make an
attack; for the truces, so often concluded between the border wardens,
had but slight effect on the prickers, as the small chieftains on both
sides were called, who maintained a constant state of warfare against
each other.
The Scotch forays were more frequent than those from the English side
of the border; not because the people were more warlike, but because
they were poorer, and depended more entirely upon plunder for their
subsistence. There was but little difference of race between the
peoples on the opposite side of the border. Both were largely of mixed
Danish and Anglo-Saxon blood; for, when William the Conqueror carried
fire and sword through Northumbria, great numbers of the inhabitants
moved north, and settled in the district beyond the reach of the Norman
arms.
On the English side of the border the population were, in time,
leavened by Norman blood; as the estates were granted by William to his
barons. These often married the heiresses of the dispossessed families,
while their followers found wives among the native population.
The frequent wars with the Scots, in which every man capable of bearing
arms in the Northern Counties had to take part; and the incessant
border warfare, maintained a most martial spirit among the population,
who considered retaliation for injuries received to be a natural and
lawful act. This was, to some extent, heightened by the fact that the
terms of many of the truces specifically permitted those who had
suffered losses on either side to pursue their plunderers across the
border. These raids were not accompanied by bloodshed, except when
resistance was made; for between the people, descended as they were
from a common stock, there was no active animosity, and at ordinary
times there was free and friendly intercourse between them.
There were, however, many exceptions to the rule that unresisting
persons were not injured. Between many families on opposite sides of
the border there existed blood feuds, arising from the fact that
members of one or the other had been killed in forays; and in these
cases bitter and bloody reprisals were made, on either side. The very
border line was ill defined, and people on one side frequently settled
on the other, as is shown by the fact that several of the treaties
contained provisions that those who had so moved might change their
nationality, and be accounted as Scotch or Englishmen, as the case
might be.
Between the Forsters and the Bairds such a feud had existed for three
generations. It had begun in a raid by the latter. The Forster of that
time had repulsed the attack, and had with his own hand killed one of
the Bairds. Six months later he was surprised and killed on his own
hearthstone, at a time when his son and most of his retainers were away
on a raid. From that time the animosity between the two families had
been unceasing, and several lives had been lost on both sides. The
Bairds with a large party had, three months before, carried fire and
sword through the district bordering on the main road, as far as Elsdon
on the east, and Alwinton on the north. News of their coming had,
however, preceded them. The villagers of Yardhope had just time to take
refuge at Forster's hold, and had repulsed the determined attacks made
upon it; until Sir Robert Umfraville brought a strong party to their
assistance, and drove the Bairds back towards the frontier.
The present raid, from which the party was returning, had been
organized partly to recoup those who took part in it for the loss of
their cattle on that occasion, and partly to take vengeance upon the
Bairds. As was the custom on both sides of the border, these
expeditions were generally composed of members of half a dozen
families, with their followers; the one who was, at once, most
energetic and best acquainted with the intricacies of the country, and
the paths across fells and moors, being chosen as leader.
Presently, Oswald Forster saw one of the party wave his hand; and at
his order four or five of the horsemen rode out, and began to drive the
scattered cattle and horses towards the house. Oswald at once ran down.
"Father is all right, Mother. He has just given orders to the men, and
they are driving all the animals in, so I suppose that the Bairds must
be in pursuit. I had better tell the men to get on their armour."
Without waiting for an answer, he told six men, who were eating their
breakfast at the farther end of the room, to make an end of their meal,
and get on their steel caps and breast and back pieces, and take their
places in the turret over the gate into the yard. In a few minutes the
animals began to pour in, first those of the homestead, then the
captured herd, weary and exhausted with their long and hurried journey;
then came the master, with his followers.
Mary Forster and her son stood at the top of the steps, ready to greet
him. The gate into the yard was on the opposite side to that of the
doorway of the fortalice, in order that assailants who had carried it
should have to pass round under the fire of the archers in the turrets,
before they could attack the building itself.
She gave a little cry as her husband came up. His left arm was in a
sling, his helmet was cleft through, and a bandage showed beneath it.
"Do not be afraid, wife," he said cheerily. "We have had hotter work
than we expected; but, so far as I am concerned, there is no great harm
done. I am sorry to say that we have lost Long Hal, and Rob Finch, and
Smedley. Two or three others are sorely wounded, and I fancy few have
got off altogether scatheless.
"All went well, until we stopped to wait for daybreak, three miles from
Allan Baird's place. Some shepherd must have got sight of us as we
halted, for we found him and his men up and ready. They had not had
time, however, to drive in the cattle; and seeing that we should like
enough have the Bairds swarming down upon us, before we could take
Allan's place, we contented ourselves with gathering the cattle and
driving them off. There were about two hundred of them.
"We went fast, but in two hours we saw the Bairds coming in pursuit;
and as it was clear that they would overtake us, hampered as we were
with the cattle, we stood and made defence. There was not much
difference in numbers, for the Bairds had not had time to gather in all
their strength. The fight was a stiff one. On our side Percy Hope was
killed, and John Liddel so sorely wounded that there is no hope of his
life. We had sixteen men killed outright, and few of us but are more or
less scarred. On their side Allan Baird was killed; and John was
smitten down, but how sorely wounded I cannot say for certain, for they
put him on a horse, and took him away at once. They left twenty behind
them on the ground dead; and the rest, finding that we were better men
than they, rode off again.
"William Baird himself had not come up. His hold was too far for the
news to have reached him, as we knew well enough; but doubtless he came
up, with his following, a few hours after we had beaten his kinsmen.
But we have ridden too fast for him to overtake us. We struck off north
as soon as we crossed the border, travelled all night by paths by which
they will find it difficult to follow or track us, especially as we
broke up into four parties, and each chose their own way.
"I have driven all our cattle in, in case they should make straight
here, after losing our track. Of course, there were many who fought
against us who know us all well; but even were it other than the Bairds
we had despoiled, they would hardly follow us so far across the border
to fetch their cattle.
"As for the Bairds, the most notorious of the Scottish raiders, for
them to claim the right of following would be beyond all bearing. Why,
I don't believe there was a head of cattle among the whole herd that
had not been born, and bred, on this side of the border. It is we who
have been fetching back stolen goods."
By this time, he and his men had entered the house, and those who had
gone through the fray scatheless were, assisted by the women, removing
the armour from their wounded comrades. Those who had been forced to
relinquish their spears were first attended to.
There was no thought of sending for a leech. Every man and woman within
fifty miles of the border was accustomed to the treatment of wounds,
and in every hold was a store of bandages, styptics, and unguents ready
for instant use. Most of the men were very sorely wounded; and had they
been of less hardy frame, and less inured to hardships, could not have
supported the long ride. John Forster, before taking off his own
armour, saw that their wounds were first attended to by his wife and
her women.
"I think they will all do," he said, "and that they will live to strike
another blow at the Bairds, yet.
"Now, Oswald, unbuckle my harness. Your mother will bandage up my arm
and head, and Elspeth shall bring up a full tankard from below, for
each of us. A draught of beer will do as much good as all the salves
and medicaments.
"Do you take the first drink, Jock Samlen, and then go up to the
watchtower. I see the men have been posted in the wall turrets. One of
them shall relieve you, shortly."
As soon as the wounds were dressed, bowls of porridge were served
round; then one of the men who had remained at home was posted at the
lookout; and, after the cattle had been seen to, all who had been on
the road stretched themselves on some rushes at one end of the room,
and were, in a few minutes, sound asleep.
"I wonder whether we shall ever have peace in the land, Oswald," his
mother said with a sigh; as, having seen that the women had all in
readiness for the preparation of the midday meal, she sat down on a low
stool, by his side.
"I don't see how we ever can have, Mother, until either we conquer
Scotland, or the Scotch shall be our masters. It is not our fault. They
are ever raiding and plundering, and heed not the orders of Douglas, or
the other Lords of the Marches."
"We are almost as bad as they are, Oswald."
"Nay, Mother, we do but try to take back our own; as father well said,
the cattle that were brought in are all English, that have been taken
from us by the Bairds; and we do but pay them back in their own coin.
It makes but little difference whether we are at war or peace. These
reiving caterans are ever on the move. It was but last week that Adam
Gordon and his bands wasted Tynedale, as far as Bellingham; and carried
off, they say, two thousand head of cattle, and slew many of the
people. If we did not cross the border sometimes, and give them a
lesson, they would become so bold that there would be no limit to their
raids."
"That is all true enough, Oswald, but it is hard that we should always
require to be on the watch, and that no one within forty miles of the
border can, at any time, go to sleep with the surety that he will not,
ere morning, hear the raiders knocking at his gate."
"Methinks that it would be dull, were there nought to do but to look
after the cattle," Oswald replied.
It seemed to him, bred up as he had been amid constant forays and
excitements, that the state of things was a normal one; and that it was
natural that a man should need to have his spear ever ready at hand,
and to give or take hard blows.
"Besides," he went on, "though we carry off each others' cattle, and
fetch them home again, we are not bad friends while the truces hold,
save in the case of those who have blood feuds. It was but last week
that Allan Armstrong and his two sisters were staying here with us; and
I promised that, ere long, I would ride across the border and spend a
week with them."
"Yes, but that makes it all the worse. Adam Armstrong married my sister
Elizabeth, whom he first met at Goddington fair; and, indeed, there are
few families, on either side of the border, who have not both English
and Scotch blood in their veins. It is natural we should be friends,
seeing how often we have held Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries; and how
often, in times of peace, Scotchmen come across the border to trade at
the fairs. Why should it not be so, when we speak the same tongue and,
save for the border line, are one people? Though, indeed, it is
different in Kirkcudbright and Wigtown, where they are Galwegians, and
their tongue is scarce understood by the border Scots. 'Tis strange
that those on one side of the border, and those on the other, cannot
keep the peace towards each other."
"But save when the kingdoms are at war, Mother, we do keep the peace,
except in the matter of cattle lifting; and bear no enmity towards each
other, save when blood is shed. In wartime each must, of course, fight
for his nation and as his lord orders him. We have wasted Scotland
again and again, from end to end; and they have swept the Northern
Counties well nigh as often.
"I have heard father say that, eight times in the last hundred years,
this hold has been levelled to the ground. It only escaped, last time,
because he built it so strongly of stone that they could not fire it;
and it would have taken them almost as long, to pick it to pieces, as
it took him to build it."
"Yes, that was when you were an infant, Oswald. When we heard the
Scotch army was marching this way, we took refuge with all the cattle
and horses among the Pikes; having first carried out and burnt all the
forage and stores, and leaving nothing that they could set fire to.
Your father has often laughed at the thought of how angry they must
have been, when they found that there was no mischief that they could
do; for, short of a long stay, which they never make, there was no way
in which they could damage it. Ours was the only house that escaped
scot free, for thirty miles round.
"But indeed, 'tis generally but parties of pillagers who trouble this
part of the country, even when they invade England. There is richer
booty, by far, to be gathered in Cumberland and Durham; for here we
have nought but our cattle and horses, and of these they have as many
on their side of the border. It is the plunder of the towns that
chiefly attracts them, and while they go past here empty handed, they
always carry great trains of booty on their backward way."
"Still, it would be dull work if there were no fighting, Mother."
"There is no fighting in Southern England, Oswald, save for those who
go across the sea to fight the French; and yet, I suppose they find
life less dull than we do. They have more to do. Here there is little
tillage, the country is poor; and who would care to break up the land
and to raise crops, when any night your ricks might be in flames, and
your granaries plundered? Thus there is nought for us to do but to keep
cattle, which need but little care and attention, and which can be
driven off to the fells when the Scots make a great raid. But in the
south, as I have heard, there is always much for farmers to attend to;
and those who find life dull can always enter the service of some
warlike lord, and follow him across the sea."
Oswald shook his head. The quiet pursuits of a farmer seemed to him to
be but a poor substitute for the excitement of border war.
"It may be as you say, Mother; but for my part, I would rather enter
the service of the Percys, and gain honour under their banner, than
remain here day after day, merely giving aid in driving the cattle in
and out, and wondering when the Bairds are coming this way, again."
His mother shook her head. Her father and two brothers had both been
slain, the last time a Scottish army had crossed the border; and
although she naturally did not regard constant troubles in the same
light in which a southern woman would have viewed them, she still
longed for peace and quiet; and was in constant fear that sooner or
later the feud with the Bairds, who were a powerful family, would cost
her husband his life.
Against open force she had little fear. The hold could resist an attack
for days, and long ere it yielded, help would arrive; but although the
watch was vigilant, and every precaution taken, it might be captured by
a sudden night attack. William Baird had, she knew, sworn a great oath
that Yardhope Hold should one day be destroyed; and the Forsters wiped
out, root and branch. And the death of his cousin Allan, in the last
raid, would surely fan the fire of his hatred against them.
"One never can say what may happen," she said, after a pause; "but if
at any time evil should befall us, and you escape, remember that your
uncle Alwyn is in Percy's service; and you cannot do better than go to
him, and place yourself under his protection, and act as he may advise
you. I like not the thought that you should become a man-at-arms; and
yet methinks that it is no more dangerous than that of a householder on
the fells. At least, in a strong castle a man can sleep without fear;
whereas none can say as much, here."
"If aught should happen to my father and you, Mother, you may be sure
that I should share in it. The Bairds would spare no one, if they
captured the hold. And although Father will not, as yet, take me with
him on his forays, I should do my share of fighting, if the hold were
attacked."
"I am sure that you would, Oswald; and were it captured I have no doubt
that, as you say, you would share our fate. I speak not with any
thought that it is likely things will turn out as I say; but they may
do so, and therefore I give you my advice, to seek out your uncle. As
to a capture of our hold, of that I have generally but little fear; but
the fact that your father has been wounded, and three of his men
killed, and that another Baird has fallen, has brought the possibility
that it may happen more closely to my mind, this morning, than usual.
"Now, my boy, you had best spend an hour in cleaning up your father's
armour and arms. The steel cap must go to the armourer at Alwinton, for
repair; but you can get some of the dints out of his breast and back
pieces, and can give them a fresh coat of black paint;" for the
borderers usually darkened their armour so that, in their raids, their
presence should not be betrayed by the glint of sun or moon upon them.
Oswald at once took up the armour, and went down the steps into the
courtyard, so that the sound of his hammer should not disturb the
sleepers. As, with slight but often repeated blows, he got out the
dents that had been made in the fray, he thought over what his mother
had been saying. To him also the death of three of the men, who had for
years been his companions, came as a shock. It was seldom, indeed, that
the forays for cattle lifting had such serious consequences. As a rule
they were altogether bloodless; and it was only because of the long
feud with the Bairds, and the fact that some warning of the coming of
the party had, in spite of their precaution, reached Allan Baird; that
on the present occasion such serious results had ensued.
Had it not been for this, the cattle would have been driven off without
resistance, for Allan Baird's own household would not have ventured to
attack so strong a party. No attempt would have been made to assault
his hold; for he had often heard his father say that, even in the case
of a blood feud, he held that houses should not be attacked, and their
occupants slain. If both parties met under arms the matter was
different; but that, in spite of the slaying of his own father by them,
he would not kill even a Baird on his hearthstone.
Still, a Baird had been killed, and assuredly William Baird would not
be deterred by any similar scruples. His pitiless ferocity was
notorious, and even his own countrymen cried out against some of his
deeds, and the Earl of Douglas had several times threatened to hand him
over to the English authorities; but the Bairds were powerful, and
could, with their allies, place four or five hundred men in the field;
and, in the difficult country in which they lived, could have given a
great deal of trouble, even to Douglas. Therefore nothing had come of
his threats, and the Bairds had continued to be the terror of that part
of the English border that was the most convenient for their
operations.
Oswald was now past sixteen, and promised to be as big a man as his
father, who was a fine specimen of the hardy Northumbrian race--tall,
strong, and sinewy. He had felt hurt when his father had refused to
allow him to take part in the foray.
"Time enough, lad, time enough," he had said, when the lad had made his
petition to do so. "You are not strong enough, yet, to hold your own
against one of the Bairds' moss troopers, should it come to fighting.
In another couple of years it will be time enough to think of your
going on such an excursion as this. You are clever with your arms, I
will freely admit; as you ought to be, seeing that you practise for two
hours a day with the men. But strength counts as well as skill, and you
want both when you ride against the Bairds; besides, at present you
have still much to learn about the paths through the fells, and across
the morasses. If you are ever to become a leader, you must know them
well enough to traverse them on the darkest night, or through the
thickest mist."
"I think that I do know most of them, Father."
"Yes, I think you do, on this side of the border; but you must learn
those on the other side, as well. They are, indeed, of even greater
importance in case of pursuit, or for crossing the border unobserved.
Hitherto, I have forbidden you to cross the line, but in future Mat
Wilson shall go with you. He knows the Scotch passes and defiles,
better than any in the band; and so that you don't go near the Bairds'
country, you can traverse them safely, so long as the truce lasts."
For years, indeed, Oswald, on one of the hardy little horses, had
ridden over the country in company with one or other of the men; and
had become familiar with every morass, moor, fell, and pass, down to
the old Roman wall to the south, and as far north as Wooler, being
frequently absent for three or four days at a time. He had several
times ridden into Scotland, to visit the Armstrongs and other friends
of the family; but he had always travelled by the roads, and knew
nothing of the hill paths on that side. His life had, in fact, been far
from dull, for they had many friends and connections in the villages at
the foot of the Cheviots, and he was frequently away from home.
His journeys were generally performed on horseback, but his father
encouraged him to take long tramps on foot, in order that he might
strengthen his muscles; and would, not infrequently, give him leave to
pay visits on condition that he travelled on foot, instead of in the
saddle.
Constant exercise in climbing, riding, and with his weapons; and at
wrestling and other sports, including the bow, had hardened every
muscle of his frame, and he was capable of standing any fatigues; and
although his father said that he could not hold his own against men, he
knew that the lad could do so against any but exceptionally powerful
ones; and believed that, when the time came, he would, like himself, be
frequently chosen as leader in border forays. He could already draw the
strongest bow to the arrowhead, and send a shaft with a strength that
would suffice to pierce the light armour worn by the Scotch borderers.
It was by the bow that the English gained the majority of their
victories over their northern neighbours; who did not take to the
weapon, and were unable to stand for a moment against the English
archers, who not only loved it as a sport, but were compelled by many
ordinances to practise with it from their childhood.
Of other education he had none, but in this respect he was no worse off
than the majority of the knights and barons of the time, who were well
content to trust to monkish scribes to draw up such documents as were
required, and to affix their seal to them. He himself had once, some
six years before, expressed a wish to be sent for a year to the care of
the monks at Rothbury, whose superior was a distant connection of his
father, in order to be taught to read and write; but John Forster had
scoffed at the idea.
"You have to learn to be a man, lad," he had said, "and the monks will
never teach you that. I do not know one letter from another, nor did my
father, or any of my forebears, and we were no worse for it. On the
marches, unless a man means to become a monk, he has to learn to make
his sword guard his head, to send an arrow straight to the mark, to
know every foot of the passes, and to be prepared, at the order of his
lord, to defend his country against the Scots.
"These are vastly more important matters than reading and writing;
which are, so far as I can see, of no use to any fair man, whose word
is his bond, and who deals with honest men. I can reckon up, if I sell
so many cattle, how much has to be paid, and more of learning than that
I want not. Nor do you, and every hour spent on it would be as good as
wasted. As to the monks, Heaven forfend that you should ever become
one. They are good men, I doubt not, and I suppose that it is necessary
that some should take to it; but that a man who has the full possession
of his limbs should mew himself up, for life, between four walls,
passing his time in vigils and saying masses, in reading books and
distributing alms, seems to me to be a sort of madness."
"I certainly do not wish to become a monk, Father, but I thought that I
should like to learn to read and write."
"And when you have learnt it, what then, Oswald? Books are expensive
playthings, and no scrap of writing has ever been inside the walls of
Yardhope Hold, since it was first built here, as far as I know. As to
writing, it would be of still less use. If a man has a message to send,
he can send it by a hired man, if it suits him not to ride himself.
Besides, if he had written it, the person he sent it to would not be
able to read it, and would have to go to some scribe for an
interpretation of its contents.
"No, no, my lad, you have plenty to learn before you come to be a man,
without bothering your head with this monkish stuff. I doubt if
Hotspur, himself, can do more than sign his name to a parchment; and
what is good enough for the Percys, is surely good enough for you."
The idea had, in fact, been put into Oswald's head by his mother. At
that time the feud with the Bairds had burned very hotly, and it would
have lessened her anxieties had the boy been bestowed, for a time, in a
convent. Oswald himself felt no disappointment at his father's refusal
to a petition that he would never have made, had not his mother dilated
to him, on several occasions, upon the great advantage of learning.
No thought of repeating the request had ever entered his mind. His
father had thought more of it, and had several times expressed grave
regret, to his wife, over such an extraordinary wish having occurred to
their son.
"The boy has nothing of a milksop about him," he said; "and is, for his
age, full of spirit and courage. How so strange an idea could have
occurred to him is more than I can imagine. I should as soon expect to
see an owlet, in a sparrow hawk's nest, as a monk hatched in Yardhope
Hold."
His wife discreetly kept silence as to the fact that she, herself, had
first put the idea in the boy's head; for although Mary Forster was
mistress inside of the hold, in all other matters John was masterful,
and would brook no meddling, even by her. The subject, therefore, of
Oswald's learning to read and write, was never renewed.