tunity for striking a blow at
the royal army; and instead of attacking it, when spent by fatigue and
encumbered with wounds, retired at once to Wales. Had he, instead of
doing this, marched to meet Sir Edmund Mortimer, who was hurrying
forward with a powerful array, the united force would have been fully
double the strength of the English army; and a great commander would,
at once, have fought a battle that would probably have altered the
whole course of events in England. Glendower's conduct here showed
that, although an able partisan leader in an irregular warfare, he had
no claim whatever to be considered a great general.

Travelling rapidly, Oswald and his party crossed the Tyne; and hearing
that the earl, now recovered from his illness, was marching down with
his army to join his son, they rode to meet him. It was a painful duty
that Oswald had to discharge, and the old earl, when he heard of the
defeat of the army, the death of the son to whom he was deeply
attached, and the capture of his brother, the Earl of Westmoreland,
gave way to despair, dismissed his army to their homes at once, and
retired, completely broken down in body and spirit, to his castle at
Warkworth.

So depressed was he that when royal messengers arrived, summoning him
in the king's name to surrender, and journey with him to London, he
instantly obeyed. When questioned by the king why he had displayed the
banner of revolt against him, he said he had done so on the urging of
Hotspur; and the king, who was always inclined to leniency, when
leniency was safe, pardoned him, and permitted him to retain his
dignity and estates.

Oswald speedily recovered from his wounds, but his father suffered
much.

"I have fought my last fight, Oswald," he said, when his son rode over
to see him, a few days after their return from the south. "I say not
that I am about to die, but only that methinks I shall never be able to
wield sword manfully again. I have talked the matter over with your
mother, and she agrees with me that it were well that I handed over
Yardhope to you. I do not mean that I should leave the old place--for
generations my fathers have lived and died here, and I would fain do
the same--but that I should hand over to you the feu, and you should
take oath for it to Northumberland, and lead its retainers in the
field. Were it that there was a chance of another raid by the Bairds, I
would still maintain my hold myself; but their power was altoget