"
The next morning Oswald started, taking no one but Roger with him. He
had, the evening before, told his squire only that he was starting on a
journey; promising to tell him more, as they rode. Accordingly, when
well away from Alnwick, he beckoned to Roger to bring up his horse
alongside of him.
"Where think you that we are going, Roger? I will give you fifty
guesses, and would warrant that you would not come at the truth."
"It matters nothing to me, master; so that I ride with you, I am
content."
"You know, Roger, how grievously the king has treated the Percys; how
he has prevented their taking ransom for their prisoners, and has
refused to ransom Sir Edmund Mortimer; how he, in bitter jest, offered
the earl the estates of Douglas; and how he has put upon them the
indignity of sending four men, of no import, to decide upon their
difference with Westmoreland?"
"Ay, ay, Sir Oswald, everyone knows this, and not a few have wondered
that the Percys have suffered these things, in quietness."
"A fresh thing has happened, Roger. The tenants of Mortimer, with aid
from the earl and Hotspur, have raised the sum that Glendower demanded
as ransom; and now the king has laid on them his order, that this money
is not to be paid.
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