One day, when Oswald had been engaged six months at this work, which
had taken him several times into Cumberland and Westmoreland, as well
as the north, Lord Percy summoned him to his private apartment.
"Hitherto you have done well, Oswald, and I feel now that I can trust
you with a mission of far higher importance than those you have
hitherto performed. 'Tis not without its dangers, but I know that you
will like it none the less for that reason. You are young, indeed, for
business of such importance; but it seems to me that, of those around
me, you would be best fitted to carry it out. Your manner of speech has
changed much, since you came here; but doubtless you can fall at will
into the border dialect, which differs little from that on the other
side; and you can pass, well enough, as coming from Jedburgh, or any
other place across the border.
"All the world knows, lad, that George, Earl of March and Dunbar, was
mightily offended at Rothesay breaking off the match with his daughter,
and marrying the child of his rival Douglas; but now I am going to tell
you what the world does not know, and which is a secret that would cost
many a life, were it to be blabbed abroad, and which I should not tell
you, had I not a perfect confidence in your discretion.
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