"
"I shall be sorry, indeed, to go," Oswald said, "but I see that if
troubles do, as you fear, break out at the conclusion of the peace, a
fortnight hence--"
"They may not wait for that," Adam Armstrong interrupted him. "A truce
is only a truce so long as there are those strong enough to enforce it,
and with Douglas and March at variance on our side, and Northumberland
and Westmoreland absent on yours, there are none to see that the truce
is not broken; and from what I hear, it may not be many days before we
see the smoke of burning houses rising, upon either side of the
border."
"The more reason for my going home," Oswald said. "My father is not
likely to be last in a fray, and assuredly he would not like me to be
away across the border when swords are drawn. I am very sorry, but I
see that there is no help for it; and tomorrow, at daybreak, I will
start for home."
That evening was the dullest Oswald had spent, during his visit. The
prospect that the two nations might soon be engaged in another
desperate struggle saddened the young cousins, who felt that a long
time might elapse before they again met; and that in the meantime their
fathers, and possibly themselves, might be fighting in opposite ranks.
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