Methinks the abbot ought to send off a contingent,
to aid Sir Robert."
Oswald laughed.
"I suppose he wants to keep them for more urgent work, and thinks that
the Church should only fight when in desperate straits. However,
Father, you may have an opportunity yet; for we cannot regard it as
certain that Sir Robert will defeat the Scots."
Three days later, however, the news arrived that Sir Robert had
attacked the Scots, at Fulhetlaw, and utterly defeated them; taking
prisoner Sir Richard Rutherford and his five sons, together with Sir
William Stewart, John Turnbull, a noted border reiver, and many others;
and that those who had escaped were in full flight for the border.
The Scotch incursion had made no change in Oswald's work. He continued
to study hard with the monk. As a rule, he fully satisfied his teacher;
but at times, when he failed to name the letters required to make up a
certain sound, the latter lost all patience with him; and, more than
once, with difficulty restrained himself from striking him. Spelling in
those days, however, had by no means crystallized itself into any
definite form, and there was so large a latitude allowed that, if the
letters used gave an approximate sound to the word, it was deemed
sufficient.
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