enceforth I will maintain, with all my might, that
these things in no way tend to soften a man; but on the contrary, in
some way sharpen his wits, and enable him to carry out matters with
plans, and contrivances, such as would scarce be conceived by men who
had not such advantage.

"But why do we not go inside?"

"I have been keeping you here, Father, because I doubt not that my
mother has been breaking the news to the girls, of their mother's
slaughter. I said nought to them about it. They knew the hold was
burnt, and I told them that Allan was wounded; but I thought that, if I
gave them the worst part of the news, it would throw them into such
deep grief as to unfit them for the journey. It might not have been
discovered till two hours after we had started that they had escaped,
and in that case we should have been mounted before the Bairds overtook
us, and it would have been a ride for life, and the girls would have
needed all their strength and courage to keep them up."

"It was as well so, Oswald, and doubtless your mother will break it
more easily to them than you could have done. Women are better at such
things than men, who are given to speak, bluntly and straight, what has
to be told."

Chapter 15: Another Mission To Ludlow.

While Oswald was talking with his father, Roger had taken the four
horses round to the long shed, that ran along one side of the wall; and
had there been telling the moss troopers the same story Oswald had been
relating to his father, whom he now joined.

"Well, friend Roger," John Forster said as he came up, shaking him
heartily by the hand; "by my faith, my son is fortunate in having so
stout a fellow as his henchman."

"'Tis rather that I am fortunate in having him as a master," Roger
replied. "I have but to strike as he bids me, and there is no need for
me to think, for my brain bears no proportion to my bulk; and indeed,
even in the matter of strength he bids fair to equal me, for he seems
to me to grow taller and stronger every month; which is not surprising,
seeing that you are, yourself, much beyond the common. In all this
matter there is no credit due to me, save that I have, as faithfully as
I could, carried out his orders."

"All men can try to carry out orders, Roger, but it is not all who can
do it with intelligence. Doubtless, it has something to do with the
book learning that you have, and in which you were his instructor."

"I think not that it is so, in an