I
could meet Cunningham in the field; and he should find the hand that
unhorsed him five and twenty years syne has lost but little of its
strength."

Now, the eldest sons of Jonathan and Barbara Moor were twins, and the
youngest were also twins, and they had no daughters living. The two
eldest were seven and twenty, and the two youngest seventeen, when the
civil war between the King and the Parliament took place. Walter
Cunningham and three sons, with several of his dependants, joined the
royal army, and he had but another son, who was then but an infant of a
few months old, and whose mother had died ere his infant lips drew from
her breast the nourishment of life. That infant he regarded as the
Benjamin of his age, and loved him with a double love for his mother's
sake. But, deeming that his duty to his King called him to arms, he,
with his three eldest sons and followers, took the field, leaving the
infant in the charge of a tried nurse.

Now, when Jonathan Moor heard that his old enemy had joined the King's
standard, although he was too much of an ancient Borderer to care aught
for either one party or another, or for any cause save his own hand;
yet, to know that Cunningham had joined the King's party, was enough to
induce him to join the army of the Parliament. He knew nothing about the
quarrel--and he cared nothing; neither did he understand anything of the
religious disputes of the period; for, generally speaking, religion upon
the Borders in those days was at a very low ebb. In Berwick, and other
places, John Knox, the dauntless apostle of the north, with others of
his followers, had laboured some years before; but their success was not
great; the Borderers could not be made to understand why they should not
"take who had the power," even though kings and wardens issued laws, and
clergymen denounced judgments against the practice. It was of no use to
tell them "Thou shalt not steal;" the difficulty was to convince them
what was theft. It was, therefore, merely because his former adversary
and his sons were in the King's army, that Jonathan Moor, with his sons,
joined the army of the Parliament.

Barbara protested bitterly against the departure of her husband and her
sons to take part in the wars. "Wherefore, Jonathan," she cried,
"wherefore will ye sacrifice yourself, and why will ye gie up my winsome
sons to the jaws of death? Is there not enough provided for the eagles'
and the ravens' banquet, without their