Once the war begins, you will fill your purse yourself; for
although the peoples of the towns and villages suffer by the Scotch
incursions, we men-at-arms profit by a war. We have nought that they
can take from us, but our lives, while we take our share of the booty,
and have the ransom of any knights or gentlemen we may make prisoners."
Accordingly they went into Alnwick, and Alwyn Forster bought for his
nephew several suits of clothes, suitable for a young gentleman of good
family; together with armour, of much more modern fashion than that to
which Oswald was accustomed. When they returned to the castle, the lad
was told to put on one of these suits, at once.
"Make your old ones up in a bundle," his uncle said. "There may be
occasions when you may find such clothes useful; though here,
assuredly, they are out of place. Now, I will go with you to Father
Ernulf."
The priest's abode was in what was called the Abbots' Tower, which was
the one nearest to the large monastery, outside the walls.
"I told you, father," the captain said, "that belike my nephew would
join me here, as I was going to present him to Sir Henry Percy. The
good knight will not be back again, mayhap, for some weeks; and the lad
has a fancy to learn to read and write, and I thought you might put him
in the way of his attaining such knowledge.
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