ill
give you a letter to Lord Talbot, saying that, being anxious to aid in
the punishment of the rebel who has just raided my marches, I have sent
you in all haste, with fifty stout men, to aid him in striking a blow;
and, if possible, in effecting Glendower's capture, before he can do
further harm to the king's loyal subjects."

Half an hour later, the troop mounted. Oswald was in high spirits, for
Sir Edmund had spoken a few words to him, when telling him of the
service to which he had appointed him.

"I am sending your troop with Sir William Bastow," he said, "chiefly in
order that I may give you another opportunity of distinguishing
yourself; and also because I am sure that Percy would be glad that his
men should take part in an enterprise in which there may be honour, and
credit. Lastly, because I would that my party should do me credit; and
the fighting, the other day, showed me that your followers better
understand warfare, of this kind, than do mine."

The troop arrived at Chester the second day after leaving, and rested
their horses for twenty-four hours. On the arrival of the Earl of
Talbot, and Lord Grey, Sir William Bastow called, at the inn where they
put up, and delivered the letter from Sir Edmund Mortimer.

"'Tis well done of Sir Edmund," the Earl of Talbot said; "and although
Ruthyn lies beyond his government of the marches, he is defending his
own command, by aiding Lord Grey and myself against this presumptuous
traitor. I will gladly take your clump of spears with me, among whom
are, I see, a small party of Lord Percy's men-at-arms.

"I hear that Sir Edmund's men inflicted a sharp blow upon the Welsh,
near Knighton. I met his messenger, bearing his report to the king, as
we came along; and he gave me the particulars, from which it seems that
the fight was, for a time, a hard one, and that the Welshmen fought, as
they used to do, with much bravery."

"They did, my lord. I was not with the party that defeated them, having
been left at Knighton to aid in the defence there, should the Welsh
attack the town; but Sir John Burgon, who commanded, said that, in the
village, they fought as if they cared not for their lives; though they
made scarce any defence, when he fell upon them as they retired, in
disorder. The success he gained he attributes, in no small degree, to
Percy's little troop; led by their captain, a stout soldier who
commands the garrison of Alnwick, and by a young squire of Sir Henry
Pe