d Constable of
England, for life, and now heard that the lordship of the Isle of Man
had since been conferred on him.

Chapter 4: An Unequal Joust.

"You must don your best costume tomorrow, Oswald," his uncle said, when
he returned from the banquet. "Sir Henry Percy's first question, after
asking as to the health of the garrison, was:

"'Has this nephew of yours, of whom you were speaking to me, come yet?'

"I told him that you had been here well-nigh four months, that you had
been practising in arms with my best swordsmen, who spoke highly of
you, and that the whole of your spare time had been spent at the
monastery, where you had been studying to acquire the art of reading
and writing, thinking that such knowledge must be useful to you in his
service. I told him that brother Roger had reported that you had shown
marvellous sharpness there, and could already read from a missal,
barring only some of the long words.

"'Oh, he had the fighting monk for his master!' Sir Henry said,
laughing. 'Truly he must have been a good pupil, if he has come out of
it without having his head broken, a dozen times. The friar is a thorn
in the abbot's flesh, and more than once I have had to beg him off, or
he would have been sent to the monastery of Saint John, which is a
place of punishment for refractory monks. But in truth he is an honest
fellow, though he has mistaken his vocation. He is a valiant
man-at-arms, and the abbot's contingent would be of small value,
without him.

"'Well, I will see your nephew in the morning. His perseverance in
learning, and his quickness in acquiring it, show him to be a youth of
good parts, and intelligent; but until I see him, I cannot say what I
will make of him.'"

Accordingly, the next morning the lad accompanied his uncle to Sir
Henry's private apartment, and found the knight alone. Sir Henry, Lord
Percy, was now about forty years old. He had received the order of
knighthood at the coronation of Richard the Second, when his father was
created earl; and, nine years later, he was made governor of Berwick
and Warden of the Marches; in which office he displayed such activity
in following up and punishing raiders, that the Scots gave him the name
of Hotspur. He was then sent to Calais, where he showed great valour.
Two years later he was made Knight of the Garter, and was then
appointed to command a fleet, sent out to repel a threatened invasion
by the French. Here he gained so great a s