Therefore, I
thought that it were best that you should tarry a while with me, at
Dunbar.
"The young fellow has a good head, Lord Percy, and is as hard to hold
as a wildcat. I put the matter of watching him into the hands of two or
three of my men, whose wits I have tried more than once, and know them
to be among the most trustworthy of my followers. This lad, however,
outwitted them. How, they have never been able to explain; but my
fellows were found, trussed up like fowls for roasting, in an alley
into which they had been thrown; having, as they declared, been knocked
down by a giant fellow, who sprung from they knew not where, just as
they were about to lay hands upon your messenger. After they had
vanished, none had seen him pass the walls, and we judged that he must
have started in a craft that sailed up the Forth. Fearing that, if they
landed, he might speedily fall into the hands of Douglas, I sent a
vessel in chase; but they missed him, and indeed, from that time to
this I knew not, save by your letter to me, whether he had reached here
safely."
After a short stay, the Earl of March was about to return to Dunbar;
when he heard that the king, himself, was coming north with an army for
the invasion of Scotland, and would then confer with him, and consider
the terms on which he proposed to transfer his allegiance to him.
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