Most of the men here
were away in the fields, or with the flocks in the valleys, and we were
too few to hinder them, and could but shut ourselves up in the houses,
until they had gone."
Oswald had dropped his reins, in speechless dismay.
"It is terrible," he said, at last. "Aunt killed, Janet and Jessie
carried away, and Allan wounded, perhaps to death!"
"Whence came these villains?" he asked suddenly. "From beyond the
Cheviots? It can hardly be so, for this part is under the governor of
Roxburgh, and no English raiders would dare to meddle with any here.
Besides, my uncle has always been on good terms with them, holding
himself aloof from all quarrels, and having friends and relations on
both sides of the border."
"We believe that it was the Bairds," a man said. "There has long been a
standing quarrel between them and the Armstrongs, partly about stolen
cattle, but more, methinks, because of the relationship between the
Armstrongs and your people"--for Oswald's visits to his uncle had made
his face familiar to the villagers--"and they say that the Bairds have
sworn that they will never rest, until they have slain the last of the
Forsters."
"Where is Allan Armstrong?"
"They have carried him down to the last house in the village.
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