However, when we present ourselves at the hold, dusty and footsore, we shall look our characters thoroughly." Neither were sorry when they arrived at a small village, a quarter of a mile from the Bairds' hold.

They went in together to the little ale house, and vigorously attacked the rough fare set before them.
"Hast thou travelled far ?" their host asked, as he watched them eating.
"Indifferently far," the monk said: "'tis five-and-twenty miles hence to Moffat, and it would have seemed farther to me, had not this good fellow overtaken me, and fell in with my pace.

He is good company, though monkish gowns have but little in common with steel pot and broadsword; but his talk, and his songs, lightened the way." "Whither are you going, father ?" "I am making my way to Carlisle," he said.

"I have a brother who is prior in a small monastery, there, and it is long since I have seen him.

Who lives at the stronghold I saw on the hills, but a short distance away ?" "It is the hold of William Baird, the head of that family; of whom, doubtless, you may have heard." "I have heard his name, as that of a noted raider across the border," the monk said; "a fierce man, and a bold one.