Oswald, too, was very well mounted, Sir Edmund Mortimer having presented him with one of the best horses in the stable, upon his leaving him.
Upon nearing Hiniltie one day, just as the new year had begun, Oswald was alarmed at seeing smoke wreaths ascending from the knoll behind the village upon which the Armstrongs' hold stood.

Galloping on, he soon saw that his first impressions were correct, and that his uncle's tower was on fire.

He found the village in confusion.
"What has happened ?" he asked, reining in his horse for a moment.
"The hold was suddenly attacked, two hours ago," a man said.

"A party of reivers rode through here.

None had seen them coming, and there was no time for us to take our women and children, and hurry to the shelter of the hold.