es fixed on
Oswald's face, as if he were reading him thoroughly.

"Then you do know the matters in question?"

"I do, my lord. I am the bearer of a further communication to you."

"Say on, then."

"Lord Percy bids me say that, on the receipt of your message to him, he
forwarded it by one of his knights to the king at Westminster; and that
the matter was discussed, by his majesty, with two or three of his most
trusted councillors. After full consideration, the king has accepted
your offer, and will grant all its conditions. He sent, my lord, also a
document with his royal seal attached, engaging to observe all the
conditions of the compact. This document Lord Percy holds, to be given
to you on a convenient occasion; but he deemed it of so important a
nature that it would be too hazardous to send it to you. The king, in a
letter to Lord Percy, begged him to tell you that, so long as the truce
continued, he could not collect an army to support you; but that, as
the time for its termination approached, he would begin to do so, and
would be in readiness to take the field, in the north, immediately you
move in the matter."

The earl sat for some time, in thought.

"Do you know the conditions of the compact?" he asked, suddenly.

Oswald had expected this question, and felt sure that the earl, who
was, when not inflamed by anger, a cool and cautious man, would highly
disapprove of Hotspur's frankness; and might possibly detain him, if he
knew that he possessed so important a secret. He therefore replied:

"As to such grave matters, it was not necessary that I should know more
than I have said to you, my Lord Earl. As it is no secret that you and
the Douglases have personal enmity, I deemed that the compact referred
to our king giving you aid, should you need it against the Douglases."

The answer was apparently satisfactory. The earl asked no further
questions, on this head.

"Were there other reasons than those you have stated why he chose you
as his messenger?"

"Another reason he gave me, my lord, was that, as I came of a family
who reside within a few miles of the border, and had relatives on this
side whom I sometimes visited, my language was similar to that spoken
in Roxburghshire; so that I could therefore pass as a Lowland Scot,
without difficulty. No one, in fact, at the various places at which we
have stopped, has taken me for aught but a countryman; though the monk
with me was often taxed with being an E