The helmets and armour were all brightly polished, and as the lights of
the torches flashed from them and from the spearheads; Oswald, for the
first time, witnessed something of the pomp of war.
His uncle, as captain of the men-at-arms left in the castle, was
invited to the banquet held after the arrival of the force. Oswald,
therefore, was free to wander about among the soldiers, listening to
their talk of what they had seen in London, and of the entertainments
there in honour of the new king; exciting, thereby, no small amount of
envy among those who had been left behind in garrison.
Oswald already knew that the earl had been appointed Constable of
England, for life, and now heard that the lordship of the Isle of Man
had since been conferred on him.
Chapter 4: An Unequal Joust.
"You must don your best costume tomorrow, Oswald," his uncle said, when
he returned from the banquet. "Sir Henry Percy's first question, after
asking as to the health of the garrison, was:
"'Has this nephew of yours, of whom you were speaking to me, come yet?'
"I told him that you had been here well-nigh four months, that you had
been practising in arms with my best swordsmen, who spoke highly of
you, and that the whole of your spare time had been spent at the
monastery, where you had been studying to acquire the art of reading
and writing, thinking that such knowledge must be useful to you in his
service.
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