uster
fifty or sixty in all for the defence."

"I shall live chiefly at Alnwick, Father. Rochester is given to me as
an hereditary feu, but I shall hold Stoubes for extra service at the
castle; and I have little doubt that Percy will, if I do him good
service, make it also hereditary. He as much as said so."

"It will make a good portion, lad. Yardhope is a knight's feu, though I
have never taken up the knighthood; and the Percys know that I should
fight just as stoutly, as John Forster, as if I wore knightly armour;
but though the lands are wide they are poor, while yours are fertile,
lying down by the river. Moreover, Coquetdale is more liable to Scotch
incursions than Reddesdale, as the road into Scotland runs along it. If
needs be we can lend a hand to each other; though, both together, we
could not hold either your place or mine against a strong invasion.

"Now, tell us how it was that you won your spurs; and how it was that
the king, himself, knighted you."

"After I have eaten and drank I will do so, Father; for indeed, Roger
and I are well-nigh famishing."

After the meal, he related the whole story of his adventures.

"Well, lad, you were in luck," his father said, when he had finished.
"The help you gave those maidens might have brought your head to the
block; but it turned out well, and was the saving of your life, so I
will say nought against the deed; especially as you owed no allegiance
either to Mortimer or to Talbot, and were, save for the orders that
Hotspur had given you, your own master."

Two days later, having sent over, on the morning after his arrival, a
message to the tenants to present themselves at Stoubes to take their
oaths to him, Oswald, accompanied by his father, rode into Reddesdale.
He found the castle a much stronger place than Yardhope, which was but
a fortified house; while this was a moated building, with strong walls
and flanking towers, and a keep that could be held successfully, even
if the walls were captured by a sudden assault.

At twelve o'clock the tenants assembled. Oswald read to them the two
parchments, and they then took the oaths to him. They were well
satisfied to have a young knight as their lord; for the feus had been
held by a minor, who had died two years before; and had not been at the
castle since he was taken away, as a child, to be brought up at the
town of Alnwick, where he had remained under the eye of the Percys. It
had long been understood, however,