he mill-pond, and they went down to the boat-pool
and watched to see the big copper-coloured salmon splashing in the
still water. One evening Randal looked up suddenly from his play. It was
growing dark. He had been building a house with the round stones and wet
sand by the river. He looked up, and there was his own father! He was
riding all alone, and his horse, _Sir Hugh_, was very lean and lame, and
scarred with the spurs. The spear in his father's hand was broken, and
he had no sword; and he looked neither to right nor to left. His eyes
were wide open, but he seemed to see nothing.

Randal cried out to him, "Father! Father!" but he never glanced at
Randal. He did not look as if he heard him, or knew he was there, and
suddenly he seemed to go away, Randal did not know how or where.

Randal was frightened.

He ran into the house, and went to his mother.

"Oh, mother," he said, "I have seen father! He was riding all alone, and
he would not look at me. _Sir Hugh_ was lame!"

"Where has he gone?" said Lady Ker, in a strange voice.

"He went away out of sight," said Randal. "I could not see where he
went."

Then his mother told him it could not be, that his father would not have
come back alone. He would not leave his men behind him in the war.

But Randal was so sure, that she did not scold him. She knew he believed
what he said.

He saw that she was not happy.

All that night, which was the Fourth of September, in the year 1513, the
day of Flodden fight, Randal's mother did not go to bed. She kept moving
about the house. Now she would look from the tower window up Tweed; and
now she would go along the gallery and look down Tweed from the other
tower. She had lights burning in all the windows. All next day she was
never still. She climbed, with two of her maids, to the top of the hill
above Yair, on the other side of the river, and she watched the roads
down Ettrick and Yarrow. Next night she slept little, and rose early.
About noon, Randal saw three or four men riding wearily, with tired
horses. They could scarcely cross the ford of Tweed, the horses were so
tired. The men were Simon Grieve the butler, and some of the tenants.
They looked very pale; some of them had their heads tied up, and there
was blood on their faces. Lady Ker and Randal ran to meet them.

Simon Grieve lighted from his horse, and whispered to Randal's mother.

Randal did not hear what he said, but his mother cried, "I knew it! I
knew i