s, 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 fe