ct?"

"I watched it from the wall, Sir Henry. I felt sure how the matter
would end. The lad is quick and sharp at border exercises. I have seen
him work with his father's troopers. There were not many of them who
could hold their own against him, and in fighting in their own way, I
would back the moss troopers against the best horsemen in Europe. They
are always accustomed to fight each man for himself, and though a score
of men-at-arms would ride through a hundred of them, if they met the
charge; in single combat their activity, and the nimbleness of their
horses, would render them more than a match for a fully-caparisoned
knight."

"So it seems," Hotspur said; "and yet, if Sinclair had but known that
the lad was about to swerve in his course, which indeed he ought to
have known--for it would have been madness to meet his charge--he too
should have changed his course to his left, when a couple of lengths
away; for he might be sure that the lad would turn that way, so as to
get on his left hand, and in that case he would have ridden over him
like a thunderbolt."

"Yes, Sir Henry, but Oswald would have had his eye on knee and bridle;
and the moment the horse changed his direction, he would have been
round the other way, like an arrow from a bow; and would have planted
himself, as he did, in the squire's rear."

"Perhaps so," Hotspur said thoughtfully. "At any rate, Alwyn, the boy
has given us all a lesson, and you have done me good service, by
presenting him to me."

Chapter 5: A Mission.

For the next three or four months, Oswald was but little at the castle;
Percy utilizing his services, in the manner most agreeable to him, by
sending him on errands to various knights and gentlemen, in different
parts of Northumberland, and to the fortified places held by the
English across the Border. A fortnight after his contest with Sinclair,
Sir Henry formally appointed him one of his esquires.

"You are young," he said, "for such a post; but as you have shown that
you are well able to take care of yourself in arms, and as I perceive
you to be shrewd and worthy of confidence, your age matters but little.
As my messenger, you will be more useful travelling as one of my
esquires, than as one without settled rank; and I can not only send
written communications by you, but can charge you to speak fully in my
name, and with my authority."

Oswald was not slow in finding out the advantages that the position
gave him. On