"Now, let us talk of what had best be done, Oswald," he said, as he led
the way into the next cottage, where the woman at once turned her
children out, and cleared a room for him.
"What force could you gather, Uncle?"
"In my grandfather's time," he said, "two hundred Armstrongs, and their
followers, could gather in case of need; but the family was grievously
thinned, in the days when Edward carried fire and sword through
Scotland; and for the last fifty years Roxburgh and these parts have
been mostly under English rule, and in that time we have never gathered
as a family. Still, all my kin would, I know, take up this quarrel; and
I should say that, in twelve hours, we could gather fifty or sixty
stout fighting men.
"But the Bairds would be expecting us, and can put, with the families
allied to them and their retainers, nigh three hundred men under arms.
Their hold is so strong a one that it took fifteen hundred Englishmen,
under Umfraville, three weeks to capture it. It was destroyed then, but
it is stronger now than ever.
"Could we get aid from Roxburgh, think you?"
"I fear not, Uncle. I know that the governor has strict orders not to
give Douglas any pretext for invading us, and to hold his garrison
together; since the earl may, at any moment, endeavour to capture the
town before help could arrive.
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