Both Sides the Border: A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower

by G. A. Henty

  BOTH SIDES THE BORDER:

  A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower

  by

  G. A. HENTY.

  Illustrated by Ralph Peacock

  Contents Preface. Chapter 1: A Border Hold. 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 moststirring in the history of England. Owen Glendower carried fire andslaughter among the Welsh marches, captured most of the strong placesheld by the English, and foiled three invasions, led by the kinghimself. The northern borders were invaded by Douglas; who, afterdevastating a large portion of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham,was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon, by the Earlof Northumberland, and his son Hotspur. Then followed the strange andunnatural coalition between the Percys, Douglas of Scotland, Glendowerof Wales, and Sir Edmund Mortimer--a coalition that would assuredlyhave overthrown the king, erected the young Earl of March as a puppetmonarch under the tutelage of the Percys, and secured the independenceof Wales, had the royal forces arrived one day later at Shrewsbury, andso allowed the confederate armies to unite.

  King Henry's victory there, entailing the death of Hotspur and thecapture of Douglas, put an end to this formidable insurrection; for,although the Earl of Northumberland twice subsequently raised thebanner of revolt, these risings were easily crushed; while Glendower'spower waned, and order, never again to be broken, was at lengthrestored in Wales. The continual state of unrest and chronic warfare,between the inhabitants of both sides of the border, was full ofadventures as stirring and romantic as that in which the hero of thestory took part.

  G. A. Henty.

  Chapter 1: A Border Hold.

  A lad was standing on the little lookout turret, on the top of a borderfortalice. The place was evidently built solely with an eye to defence,comfort being an altogether secondary consideration. It was a squarebuilding, of rough stone, the walls broken only by narrow loopholes;and the door, which was ten feet above the ground, was reached by broadwooden 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 dividedinto several chambers, which were the sleeping places of its lord andmaster, his family, and the women of the household. The floor below,onto which the door from without opened, was undivided save by two rowsof stone pillars that supported the beams of the floor above. In onecorner the floor, some fifteen feet square, was raised somewhat abovethe general level. This was set aside for the use of the master and thefamily. The rest of the apartment was used as the living and sleepingroom of the followers, and hinds, of the fortalice.

  The basement--which, although on a level with the ground outside, couldbe approached only by a trapdoor and ladder from the room above--wasthe storeroom, and contained sacks of barley and oatmeal, sides ofbacon, firewood, sacks of beans, and trusses of hay for the use of thehorses and cattle, should the place have to stand a short siege. In thecentre 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 lookouttower, rising twelve feet above it; and over the door another turret,projecting some eighteen inches beyond the wall of the house, slitsbeing 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 tenyards across, and surrounded by a wall twelve feet high, with a squareturret at each corner.

  Everything was roughly constructed, although massive and solid. Withthe exception of the door, and the steps leading to it, no wood hadbeen used in the construction. The very beams were of rough stone, thefloors were of the same material. It was clearly the object of thebuilders to erect a fortress that could defy fire, and could only bedestroyed at the cost of enormous labour.

  This was indeed a prime necessity, for the hold stood in the wildcountry between the upper waters of the Coquet and the Reed river.Harbottle and Longpikes rose but a few miles away, and the wholecountry was broken up by deep ravines and valleys, fells and crags.From the edge of the moorland, a hundred yards from the outer wall, theground dropped sharply down into the valley, where the two villages ofYardhope 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 herbagethat grew among the heather and blocks of stones, scattered everywhere.

  Presently the lad caught sight of the flash of the sun, which had butjust 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 sunglint on a spearhead."

  "I trust that they are all there," she said, and then turned to twowomen by the fire, and bade them put on more wood and get the potsboiling.

  "Go up again, Oswald; and, as soon as you can make out your father'sfigure, bring me down news. I have not closed an eye for the last twonights, for 'tis a more dangerous enterprise than usual on which theyhave 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 joinedby Thomas Gray and his following, and Forster of Currick, and JohnLiddel, 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. Bythis time the party for whom he was watching had reached the moor. Itconsisted of twelve or fourteen horsemen, all clad in dark armour,carrying very long spears and mounted on small, but wiry, horses. Theywere driving before them a knot of some forty or fifty cattle, andthree of them led horses carrying heavy burdens. Oswald's quick eyenoticed that four of the horsemen were not carrying their spears.

  "They are three short of their number," he said to himself, "and thosefour must all be sorely wounded. Well, it might have been worse."

  Oswald had been brought up to regard forays and attacks as ordinaryincidents of life. Watch and ward were always kept in the littlefortalice, especially when the nights were dark and misty, for therewas never any saying when a party of Scottish borderers might make anattack; for the truces, so often concluded between the border wardens,had but slight effect on the prickers, as the small chieftains on bothsides were called, who maintained a constant state of warfare againsteach other.

  The Scotch forays were more frequent than those from the English sideof the border; not because the people were more warlike, but becausethey were poorer, and depended more entirely upon plunder for theirsubsistence. There was but little difference of race between thepeoples on the opposite side of the border. Both were largely of mixedDanish and Anglo-Saxon blood; for, when William the Conqueror carriedfire and sword through Northumbria, great numbers of the inhabitantsmoved north, and settled in the district beyond the reach of the Normanarms.

  On the
English side of the border the population were, in time,leavened by Norman blood; as the estates were granted by William to hisbarons. 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 bearingarms in the Northern Counties had to take part; and the incessantborder warfare, maintained a most martial spirit among the population,who considered retaliation for injuries received to be a natural andlawful act. This was, to some extent, heightened by the fact that theterms of many of the truces specifically permitted those who hadsuffered losses on either side to pursue their plunderers across theborder. These raids were not accompanied by bloodshed, except whenresistance was made; for between the people, descended as they werefrom a common stock, there was no active animosity, and at ordinarytimes there was free and friendly intercourse between them.

  There were, however, many exceptions to the rule that unresistingpersons were not injured. Between many families on opposite sides ofthe border there existed blood feuds, arising from the fact thatmembers of one or the other had been killed in forays; and in thesecases bitter and bloody reprisals were made, on either side. The veryborder line was ill defined, and people on one side frequently settledon the other, as is shown by the fact that several of the treatiescontained provisions that those who had so moved might change theirnationality, and be accounted as Scotch or Englishmen, as the casemight be.

  Between the Forsters and the Bairds such a feud had existed for threegenerations. It had begun in a raid by the latter. The Forster of thattime had repulsed the attack, and had with his own hand killed one ofthe Bairds. Six months later he was surprised and killed on his ownhearthstone, at a time when his son and most of his retainers were awayon a raid. From that time the animosity between the two families hadbeen unceasing, and several lives had been lost on both sides. TheBairds with a large party had, three months before, carried fire andsword through the district bordering on the main road, as far as Elsdonon the east, and Alwinton on the north. News of their coming had,however, preceded them. The villagers of Yardhope had just time to takerefuge at Forster's hold, and had repulsed the determined attacks madeupon it; until Sir Robert Umfraville brought a strong party to theirassistance, and drove the Bairds back towards the frontier.

  The present raid, from which the party was returning, had beenorganized partly to recoup those who took part in it for the loss oftheir cattle on that occasion, and partly to take vengeance upon theBairds. As was the custom on both sides of the border, theseexpeditions were generally composed of members of half a dozenfamilies, with their followers; the one who was, at once, mostenergetic and best acquainted with the intricacies of the country, andthe paths across fells and moors, being chosen as leader.

  Presently, Oswald Forster saw one of the party wave his hand; and athis order four or five of the horsemen rode out, and began to drive thescattered cattle and horses towards the house. Oswald at once ran down.

  "Father is all right, Mother. He has just given orders to the men, andthey are driving all the animals in, so I suppose that the Bairds mustbe 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 theirbreakfast 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 theirplaces in the turret over the gate into the yard. In a few minutes theanimals began to pour in, first those of the homestead, then thecaptured 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 greethim. The gate into the yard was on the opposite side to that of thedoorway of the fortalice, in order that assailants who had carried itshould 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 asling, his helmet was cleft through, and a bandage showed beneath it.

  "Do not be afraid, wife," he said cheerily. "We have had hotter workthan we expected; but, so far as I am concerned, there is no great harmdone. I am sorry to say that we have lost Long Hal, and Rob Finch, andSmedley. Two or three others are sorely wounded, and I fancy few havegot off altogether scatheless.

  "All went well, until we stopped to wait for daybreak, three miles fromAllan Baird's place. Some shepherd must have got sight of us as wehalted, for we found him and his men up and ready. They had not hadtime, however, to drive in the cattle; and seeing that we should likeenough have the Bairds swarming down upon us, before we could takeAllan's place, we contented ourselves with gathering the cattle anddriving 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 werewith the cattle, we stood and made defence. There was not muchdifference in numbers, for the Bairds had not had time to gather in alltheir strength. The fight was a stiff one. On our side Percy Hope waskilled, and John Liddel so sorely wounded that there is no hope of hislife. We had sixteen men killed outright, and few of us but are more orless scarred. On their side Allan Baird was killed; and John wassmitten down, but how sorely wounded I cannot say for certain, for theyput him on a horse, and took him away at once. They left twenty behindthem on the ground dead; and the rest, finding that we were better menthan they, rode off again.

  "William Baird himself had not come up. His hold was too far for thenews to have reached him, as we knew well enough; but doubtless he cameup, 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 northas soon as we crossed the border, travelled all night by paths by whichthey will find it difficult to follow or track us, especially as webroke up into four parties, and each chose their own way.

  "I have driven all our cattle in, in case they should make straighthere, after losing our track. Of course, there were many who foughtagainst us who know us all well; but even were it other than the Bairdswe had despoiled, they would hardly follow us so far across the borderto fetch their cattle.

  "As for the Bairds, the most notorious of the Scottish raiders, forthem 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 thathad not been born, and bred, on this side of the border. It is we whohave been fetching back stolen goods."

  By this time, he and his men had entered the house, and those who hadgone through the fray scatheless were, assisted by the women, removingthe armour from their wounded comrades. Those who had been forced torelinquish their spears were first attended to.

  There was no thought of sending for a leech. Every man and woman withinfifty miles of the border was accustomed to the treatment of wounds,and in every hold was a store of bandages, styptics, and unguents readyfor instant use. Most of the men were very sorely wounded; and had theybeen of less hardy frame, and less inured to hardships, could not havesupported the long ride. John Forster, before taking off his ownarmour, saw that their wounds were first attended to by his wife andher women.

  "I think they will all do," he said, "and that they will live to strikeanother blow at the Bairds, yet.

  "Now, Oswald, unbuckle my harness. Your mother will bandage up my armand head, and Elspeth shall bring up a full tankard from below, foreach of us. A draught of beer will do as much good as all the salvesand medicaments.

  "Do you take the first drink, Jock Samlen, and then go up to thewatchtower. I see the men have been posted in the wall turrets. One ofthem shall relieve you, shortly."

  As soon as the wounds were dressed, bowls of porridge were servedround; then one of the men who had remained at home was posted at thelookout; and, after the cattle had been seen to, all who had been onthe 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," hismother said with a sigh; as, having seen that the women had all inreadiness for the preparation of the midday meal, she sat down on a lowstool, by his side.

  "I don't see how we ever can have, Mother, until either we conquerScotland, or the Scotch shall be our masters. It is not our fault. Theyare ever raiding and plundering, and heed not the orders of Douglas, orthe 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 takenfrom 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. Thesereiving caterans are ever on the move. It was but last week that AdamGordon and his bands wasted Tynedale, as far as Bellingham; and carriedoff, they say, two thousand head of cattle, and slew many of thepeople. If we did not cross the border sometimes, and give them alesson, they would become so bold that there would be no limit to theirraids."

  "That is all true enough, Oswald, but it is hard that we should alwaysrequire to be on the watch, and that no one within forty miles of theborder 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 lookafter the cattle," Oswald replied.

  It seemed to him, bred up as he had been amid constant forays andexcitements, that the state of things was a normal one; and that it wasnatural 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, andfetch 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 weekthat Allan Armstrong and his two sisters were staying here with us; andI promised that, ere long, I would ride across the border and spend aweek with them."

  "Yes, but that makes it all the worse. Adam Armstrong married my sisterElizabeth, whom he first met at Goddington fair; and, indeed, there arefew families, on either side of the border, who have not both Englishand Scotch blood in their veins. It is natural we should be friends,seeing how often we have held Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries; and howoften, in times of peace, Scotchmen come across the border to trade atthe 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 isdifferent in Kirkcudbright and Wigtown, where they are Galwegians, andtheir tongue is scarce understood by the border Scots. 'Tis strangethat those on one side of the border, and those on the other, cannotkeep 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 eachother, save when blood is shed. In wartime each must, of course, fightfor his nation and as his lord orders him. We have wasted Scotlandagain and again, from end to end; and they have swept the NorthernCounties 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, asit took him to build it."

  "Yes, that was when you were an infant, Oswald. When we heard theScotch army was marching this way, we took refuge with all the cattleand horses among the Pikes; having first carried out and burnt all theforage and stores, and leaving nothing that they could set fire to.Your father has often laughed at the thought of how angry they musthave been, when they found that there was no mischief that they coulddo; for, short of a long stay, which they never make, there was no wayin which they could damage it. Ours was the only house that escapedscot free, for thirty miles round.

  "But indeed, 'tis generally but parties of pillagers who trouble thispart of the country, even when they invade England. There is richerbooty, by far, to be gathered in Cumberland and Durham; for here wehave nought but our cattle and horses, and of these they have as manyon their side of the border. It is the plunder of the towns thatchiefly attracts them, and while they go past here empty handed, theyalways 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 whogo across the sea to fight the French; and yet, I suppose they findlife less dull than we do. They have more to do. Here there is littletillage, the country is poor; and who would care to break up the landand to raise crops, when any night your ricks might be in flames, andyour granaries plundered? Thus there is nought for us to do but to keepcattle, which need but little care and attention, and which can bedriven off to the fells when the Scots make a great raid. But in thesouth, 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 somewarlike lord, and follow him across the sea."

  Oswald shook his head. The quiet pursuits of a farmer seemed to him tobe but a poor substitute for the excitement of border war.

  "It may be as you say, Mother; but for my part, I would rather enterthe service of the Percys, and gain honour under their banner, thanremain here day after day, merely giving aid in driving the cattle inand out, and wondering when the Bairds are coming this way, again."

  His mother shook her head. Her father and two brothers had both beenslain, the last time a Scottish army had crossed the border; andalthough she naturally did not regard constant troubles in the samelight in which a southern woman would have viewed them, she stilllonged for peace and quiet; and was in constant fear that sooner orlater the feud with the Bairds, who were a powerful family, would costher husband his life.

  Against open force she had little fear. The hold could resist an attackfor days, and long ere it yielded, help would arrive; but although thewatch was vigilant, and every precaution taken, it might be captured bya sudden night attack. William Baird had, she knew, sworn a great oaththat Yardhope Hold should one day be destroyed; and the Forsters wipedout, root and branch. And the death of his cousin Allan, in the lastraid, would surely fan the fire of his hatred against them.

  "One never can say what may happen," she said, after a pause; "but ifat any time evil should befall us, and you escape, remember that youruncle Alwyn is in Percy's service; and you cannot do better than go tohim, and place yourself under his protection, and act as he may adviseyou. I like not the thought that you should become a man-at-arms; andyet methinks that it is no more dangerous than that of a householder onthe 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 surethat I should share in it. The Bairds would spare no one, if theycaptured the hold. And although Father will not, as yet, take me withhim on his forays, I should do my share of fighting, if the hold wereattacked."

  "I am sure that you would, Oswald; and were it captured I have no doubtthat, as you say, you would share our fate. I speak not with anythought that it is likely things will turn out as I say; but they maydo so, and therefore I give you my advice, to seek out your uncle. Asto a capture of our hold, of that I have generally but little fear; butthe fact that your father has been wounded, and three of his menkilled, and that another Baird has fallen, has brought the possibilitythat 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'sarmour and arms. The steel cap must go to the armourer at Alwinton, forrepair; but you can get some of the dints out of his breast and backpieces, and can give them a fresh coat of black paint;" for theborderers usually darkened their armour so that, in their raids, theirpresence 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 thecourtyard,
so that the sound of his hammer should not disturb thesleepers. As, with slight but often repeated blows, he got out thedents that had been made in the fray, he thought over what his motherhad been saying. To him also the death of three of the men, who had foryears been his companions, came as a shock. It was seldom, indeed, thatthe forays for cattle lifting had such serious consequences. As a rulethey were altogether bloodless; and it was only because of the longfeud with the Bairds, and the fact that some warning of the coming ofthe party had, in spite of their precaution, reached Allan Baird; thaton the present occasion such serious results had ensued.

  Had it not been for this, the cattle would have been driven off withoutresistance, for Allan Baird's own household would not have ventured toattack so strong a party. No attempt would have been made to assaulthis hold; for he had often heard his father say that, even in the caseof a blood feud, he held that houses should not be attacked, and theiroccupants slain. If both parties met under arms the matter wasdifferent; 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 notbe deterred by any similar scruples. His pitiless ferocity wasnotorious, and even his own countrymen cried out against some of hisdeeds, and the Earl of Douglas had several times threatened to hand himover to the English authorities; but the Bairds were powerful, andcould, with their allies, place four or five hundred men in the field;and, in the difficult country in which they lived, could have given agreat deal of trouble, even to Douglas. Therefore nothing had come ofhis threats, and the Bairds had continued to be the terror of that partof the English border that was the most convenient for theiroperations.

  Oswald was now past sixteen, and promised to be as big a man as hisfather, who was a fine specimen of the hardy Northumbrian race--tall,strong, and sinewy. He had felt hurt when his father had refused toallow him to take part in the foray.

  "Time enough, lad, time enough," he had said, when the lad had made hispetition to do so. "You are not strong enough, yet, to hold your ownagainst one of the Bairds' moss troopers, should it come to fighting.In another couple of years it will be time enough to think of yourgoing on such an excursion as this. You are clever with your arms, Iwill freely admit; as you ought to be, seeing that you practise for twohours a day with the men. But strength counts as well as skill, and youwant both when you ride against the Bairds; besides, at present youhave still much to learn about the paths through the fells, and acrossthe morasses. If you are ever to become a leader, you must know themwell enough to traverse them on the darkest night, or through thethickest 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 learnthose on the other side, as well. They are, indeed, of even greaterimportance in case of pursuit, or for crossing the border unobserved.Hitherto, I have forbidden you to cross the line, but in future MatWilson 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, hadridden over the country in company with one or other of the men; andhad become familiar with every morass, moor, fell, and pass, down tothe old Roman wall to the south, and as far north as Wooler, beingfrequently absent for three or four days at a time. He had severaltimes ridden into Scotland, to visit the Armstrongs and other friendsof the family; but he had always travelled by the roads, and knewnothing of the hill paths on that side. His life had, in fact, been farfrom dull, for they had many friends and connections in the villages atthe foot of the Cheviots, and he was frequently away from home.

  His journeys were generally performed on horseback, but his fatherencouraged him to take long tramps on foot, in order that he mightstrengthen his muscles; and would, not infrequently, give him leave topay visits on condition that he travelled on foot, instead of in thesaddle.

  Constant exercise in climbing, riding, and with his weapons; and atwrestling and other sports, including the bow, had hardened everymuscle of his frame, and he was capable of standing any fatigues; andalthough his father said that he could not hold his own against men, heknew that the lad could do so against any but exceptionally powerfulones; and believed that, when the time came, he would, like himself, befrequently chosen as leader in border forays. He could already draw thestrongest bow to the arrowhead, and send a shaft with a strength thatwould suffice to pierce the light armour worn by the Scotch borderers.It was by the bow that the English gained the majority of theirvictories over their northern neighbours; who did not take to theweapon, and were unable to stand for a moment against the Englisharchers, who not only loved it as a sport, but were compelled by manyordinances to practise with it from their childhood.

  Of other education he had none, but in this respect he was no worse offthan the majority of the knights and barons of the time, who were wellcontent to trust to monkish scribes to draw up such documents as wererequired, and to affix their seal to them. He himself had once, somesix years before, expressed a wish to be sent for a year to the care ofthe monks at Rothbury, whose superior was a distant connection of hisfather, in order to be taught to read and write; but John Forster hadscoffed at the idea.

  "You have to learn to be a man, lad," he had said, "and the monks willnever teach you that. I do not know one letter from another, nor did myfather, or any of my forebears, and we were no worse for it. On themarches, unless a man means to become a monk, he has to learn to makehis sword guard his head, to send an arrow straight to the mark, toknow every foot of the passes, and to be prepared, at the order of hislord, 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 wordis his bond, and who deals with honest men. I can reckon up, if I sellso many cattle, how much has to be paid, and more of learning than thatI want not. Nor do you, and every hour spent on it would be as good aswasted. As to the monks, Heaven forfend that you should ever becomeone. They are good men, I doubt not, and I suppose that it is necessarythat some should take to it; but that a man who has the full possessionof his limbs should mew himself up, for life, between four walls,passing his time in vigils and saying masses, in reading books anddistributing alms, seems to me to be a sort of madness."

  "I certainly do not wish to become a monk, Father, but I thought that Ishould like to learn to read and write."

  "And when you have learnt it, what then, Oswald? Books are expensiveplaythings, and no scrap of writing has ever been inside the walls ofYardhope Hold, since it was first built here, as far as I know. As towriting, 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 beable to read it, and would have to go to some scribe for aninterpretation 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 ifHotspur, himself, can do more than sign his name to a parchment; andwhat 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. Atthat time the feud with the Bairds had burned very hotly, and it wouldhave lessened her anxieties had the boy been bestowed, for a time, in aconvent. Oswald himself felt no disappointment at his father's refusalto a petition that he would never have made, had not his mother dilatedto him, on several occasions, upon the great advantage of learning.

  No thought of repeating the request had ever entered his mind. Hisfather had thought more of it, and had several times expressed graveregret, to his wife, over such an extraordinary wish having occurred totheir son.

  "The boy has nothing of a milksop about him," he said; "and is, for hisage, full of spirit and courage. How so strange an ide
a could haveoccurred to him is more than I can imagine. I should as soon expect tosee an owlet, in a sparrow hawk's nest, as a monk hatched in YardhopeHold."

  His wife discreetly kept silence as to the fact that she, herself, hadfirst put the idea in the boy's head; for although Mary Forster wasmistress inside of the hold, in all other matters John was masterful,and would brook no meddling, even by her. The subject, therefore, ofOswald's learning to read and write, was never renewed.