"Now to yourself, Sir Oswald. You will, I hope, continue my knight, as
you have been my squire."
"Assuredly, Sir Henry, I have never thought of anything else."
"Very well, then; I will, as soon as may be, appoint to you a double
knight's feu. I say a double feu, because I should like to have you as
one of the castle knights, and so have much larger service from you,
than that which a knight can be called upon to render, for an ordinary
feu. I will bid Father Ernulf look through the rolls, and see what feus
are vacant. One of these I will make an hereditary feu, to pass down
from you to your heirs, irrevocably; the other will be a service feu,
to support the expenses caused by your extra services, and revocable
under the usual conditions."
A week later there was a formal ceremonial at the castle, and in the
presence of the earl, Hotspur, and the knights and gentlemen of their
service, Oswald took the oath of allegiance to Sir Henry Percy; and
afterwards, as required by law, to the king; and received from Hotspur
deeds appointing him to two knight's feus, including the villages of
Stoubes and Rochester, in Reddesdale. There were, at the time, six
knight's feus vacant; and as Percy had left it to him to choose which
he liked, he had selected these, as they lay but a twelve miles' ride,
over the hills, from his father's place in Coquetdale.
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