Oswald, too, was very well
mounted, Sir Edmund Mortimer having presented him with one of the best
horses in the stable, upon his leaving him.
Upon nearing Hiniltie one day, just as the new year had begun, Oswald
was alarmed at seeing smoke wreaths ascending from the knoll behind the
village upon which the Armstrongs' hold stood. Galloping on, he soon
saw that his first impressions were correct, and that his uncle's tower
was on fire. He found the village in confusion.
"What has happened?" he asked, reining in his horse for a moment.
"The hold was suddenly attacked, two hours ago," a man said. "A party
of reivers rode through here. None had seen them coming, and there was
no time for us to take our women and children, and hurry to the shelter
of the hold. Adam Armstrong is away at Roxburgh. Young Allan, with what
few men there were at the hold, had but just time to shut the gates;
but these were hewed down, in a short time, by the troopers. There was
a stout fight as they entered. Allan was cut down and left for dead,
and the troopers were all killed. Dame Armstrong was slain, and her
daughters carried off by the reivers; and these, as soon as they had
sacked the house, set it alight and galloped off.
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