King Stephen kept things very lively; and the Scots were always running over the Border for cattle and sheep, and any thing else they could lay their hands on.

And the monks had great flocks, so they rented their lands to companies of four fighting men; and one of the four was to be ready day and night to protect the sheep, and the Scots kept them busy.

Eh?
What ?" "The Musgraves and Armstrongs and Netherbys, I know," and the cloud passed from her face; and to the clatter of her horse's hoofs, she lilted merrily a stanza of an old border song:-- "The mountain sheep were sweeter, But the valley sheep were fatter; We therefore deemed it meeter To carry off the latter.
We made an expedition; We met a force, and quelled it; We took a strong position, And killed the men who held it." And the squire, who knew the effort it cost her, fell readily into her mood of forced gayety until the simulated feeling became a real one; and they entered Dalton neck and neck together, after a mile's hard race.
In the mean time the letter which was to summon Fate sped to its destination.

When it arrived in Oxford, Julius had left Oxford for London, and it followed him there.

He was sitting in his hotel the ensuing night, when it was delivered into his hands; and as it happened, he was in a mood most favorable to its success.