protect me to the end, against the stroke
of English foes, or of Welsh traitors."

After supper was over, Glendower led Oswald to his private chamber.

"Now, Sir Oswald, you can speak freely. I have placed a guard outside
the door, and there is no fear of interruption. Do you come on your own
account, or from another?"

"I come from the Earl of Northumberland, and his son Sir Henry Percy;
and am charged, in the first place, to deliver this letter to you; and
then to give you such further intelligence, as to the matter, as it may
be needful for you to know."

"From the Percys!" Glendower said, in surprise, as he cut the silk that
held the roll together.

His countenance expressed great surprise, as he read the contents.

"There is no snare in this?" he said suddenly, after reading it through
two or three times, and looking sharply at Oswald. "'Tis not from the
Percys, who, more than any other, assisted the usurper to the throne,
that I should have looked for such an offer."

"I should be the last to bring such a letter to you, Glendower, were
there aught behind what is written. The earl and Hotspur spoke of the
matter at length to me. They regret, now, the part they took in
enthroning Henry; at whose hands they have now received such
indignities that they are resolved, if it may be, to undo their work,
and to place the lawful king, the young Earl of March, on the throne."

He then related the various complaints that the Percys had against the
king, and told Glendower that the matter had been brought to a head by
Henry's refusal to allow them to pay the ransom that had been collected
for Sir Edmund Mortimer.

"Whom have they with them?" Glendower asked, after listening in
silence.

"They have the Earl of Westmoreland, who, like themselves, is greatly
offended at the appointment of four commissioners, men of no standing
or position, to judge between two of the great barons of England; blood
relations, too, whose difference is on a matter of but small
importance. No other name was mentioned before me, but the earl stated
that he looked for much assistance from Scotland."

"Ay, ay! As they hold in their hands Douglas, and the Regent's son,
Moray, and Angus, they may well make terms with Scotland. Yes, it is a
very great plot, and since I can get no ransom for Mortimer, and he can
raise some three or four thousand men, he would be of more value to us
free than as a prisoner."

"It is not only that," Oswald sai