"
"I was not with him, to my great disappointment; for he said that
another year must pass, before I should be fit to hold my own in a
fray. The affair was a somewhat hot one. Three of my father's men were
killed, and some ten or twelve of those under other leaders; and my
father and several of the band were wounded, some very sorely. It
happened thus."
And he then told the details of the affair.
"It might well have been worse," Allonby said, "for, had the Bairds had
time to assemble, it would have gone hardly with your father's party;
especially as there is, as I have heard, a blood feud between him and
them."
"They have scored the last success," Oswald said, "seeing that they
accompanied Sir Richard Rutherford in his raid, nigh two months ago;
and, as I hear, while the rest came on harrying and plundering
Croquetdale, the Bairds and their gathering remained at our hold, which
they found deserted, for indeed my father could not hope to defend it
successfully, against so large a force; and there they employed
themselves in demolishing the outer wall, and much of the hold itself;
and would have completed their task, had it not been for the defeat
inflicted upon the rest of the Scots by Sir Robert Umfraville, when
they were forced to hasten back across the border.
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