If your lordship will deign to employ me in such
service, I can promise to do so safely, and to justify my uncle's
recommendation; and shall be ready, at all times, to risk my life in
carrying out your orders."
"Well spoken, lad. I like the tone of your voice, and your manner of
speech. They are such as will do no discredit to my household, and I
hereby appoint you to it; further matters I will discuss with your
uncle."
Oswald expressed his thanks in suitable terms, and then, bowing deeply,
retired.
"A very proper lad, Alwyn. I would have done much for you, old friend,
and would have taken him in some capacity, whatever he might have
turned out; but, frankly, I doubted whether John Forster, valiant moss
trooper as he is, would have been like to have had a son whom I could
enroll in my household, where the pages and esquires are all sons of
knights and men of quality. It is true that his father might have been
a knight, had he chosen, since the earl offered him that honour after
Otterburn; for three times he charged, at the head of a handful of his
own men, right into the heart of the Scottish army, to try and rescue
me; but he has always kept aloof in his own hold, going his own way and
fighting for his own hand; and never once, that I can recall, has he
paid a visit to us here, or at our other seats.
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