such serious consequences. As a rule
they were altogether bloodless; and it was only because of the long
feud with the Bairds, and the fact that some warning of the coming of
the party had, in spite of their precaution, reached Allan Baird; that
on the present occasion such serious results had ensued.

Had it not been for this, the cattle would have been driven off without
resistance, for Allan Baird's own household would not have ventured to
attack so strong a party. No attempt would have been made to assault
his hold; for he had often heard his father say that, even in the case
of a blood feud, he held that houses should not be attacked, and their
occupants slain. If both parties met under arms the matter was
different; 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 not
be deterred by any similar scruples. His pitiless ferocity was
notorious, and even his own countrymen cried out against some of his
deeds, and the Earl of Douglas had several times threatened to hand him
over to the English authorities; but the Bairds were powerful, and
could, with their allies, place four or five hundred men in the field;
and, in the difficult country in which they lived, could have given a
great deal of trouble, even to Douglas. Therefore nothing had come of
his threats, and the Bairds had continued to be the terror of that part
of the English border that was the most convenient for their
operations.

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

"Time enough, lad, time enough," he had said, when the lad had made his
petition to do so. "You are not strong enough, yet, to hold your own
against one of the Bairds' moss troopers, should it come to fighting.
In another couple of years it will be time enough to think of your
going on such an excursion as this. You are clever with your arms, I
will freely admit; as you ought to be, seeing that you practise for two
hours a day with the men. But strength counts as well as skill, and you
want both when you ride against the Bairds; besides, at present you
have still much to learn about the paths through the fells, and across
the morasses. If you are ever to become a