At first he had but a wooden sword.

Then, as his limbs grew stronger, he practised with a blunted sword; and now at the age of fifteen Sandy Grahame had as much as he could do to hold his own with his pupil.
At the time the story opens, in the springtime of the year 1293, he was playing at ball with some of the village lads on the green, when a party of horsemen was seen approaching.
At their head rode two men perhaps forty years old, while a lad of some eighteen years of age rode beside them.

In one of the elder men Archie recognized Sir John Kerr.

The lad beside him was his son Allan.

The other leader was Sir John Hazelrig, governor of Lanark; behind them rode a troop of armed men, twenty in number.
Some of the lads would have ceased from their play; but Archie exclaimed: "Heed them not; make as if you did not notice them.