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