hardly think that the
Armstrongs can have so soon gathered a force sufficient to attack him,
but he may have thought it as well to place one of his men on the
watch.

"I wonder how Roger is getting on! I think they must have taken him in,
or he would have been back before this."

Roger had walked quietly up the hill on which the Bairds' hold was
perched. A man stepped forward from the gate, as he neared it.

"None enter here," he said, "without permission from the master."

"Will you tell him that a poor monk, of the order of Saint Benedict, on
his way from his convent at Dunbar to one near Carlisle, of which his
brother is prior, prays hospitality for a day or two, seeing that he is
worn out by long travel?"

The sentry spoke to a man behind him, and the latter took the message
to William Baird. The latter was in a good humour. He himself had not
taken part in the raid on the Armstrongs, which had been led by Thomas
Baird, a cousin; but the fact that the latter had been entirely
successful, and had burned down Armstrong's house, and brought back his
daughters, had given him the greatest satisfaction. There was a
long-standing feud between the two families, and the fact that the
Armstrongs were on good terms with their English neighbours, and still
more that one of them had married the sister-in-law of a Forster of
Yardhope, had greatly embittered the feeling, on his side. He had long
meditated striking a blow at them, and the present time had been
exceptionally favourable.

Douglas had his hands full. He was on ill terms with Rothesay, whose
conduct to his daughter had deeply offended him. The newly-acquired
land of the Earl of March gave him much trouble. He was jealous of the
great influence of Albany, at court; and was, moreover, making
preparations for a serious raid into England. It was not likely, then,
that he would pay any attention to the complaints the Armstrongs might
make, of any attack upon them; especially as their aid was of small use
to him, while the Bairds could, at any moment, join him, in an invasion
across the border, with three hundred good fighting men.

William Baird had not, as yet, even considered what he should do with
his captives. He might give them in marriage to some of the younger men
of his family, or he might hold them as hostages. As to injuring them
personally, he did not think of it. Slaughter in a raid was lightly
regarded, but to ill-treat female prisoners would arouse a g