The window was very strongly barred, and Oswald observed, with pain, that his ten months' imprisonment had told very heavily upon Mortimer.
"Why, Oswald! Ah! I see I should say Sir Oswald.

What brings you here?
Some good news, I trust.

Has my ransom been collected ?" "It has been collected, Sir Edmund," Oswald said, as they shook hands, "but the king, who refused altogether to pay your ransom, as he did Lord Grey's, has forbidden the money, raised partly by your tenants and partly by the tenants of your nephew, to be handed over.

'Tis clear that he views you as an enemy; and has, indeed, ventured to declare his belief that your capture by Glendower was a thing arranged, beforehand." "He lies!" Sir Edmund exclaimed angrily.

"We fought stoutly and, had it not been for the treachery of the Welsh bowmen, should have won the day.
"Then how stands the matter, Sir Oswald, and how is it that you are here ?" Oswald then related the purport of his mission, and gave Mortimer some messages with which Hotspur had charged him, on the evening before he started.
"Assuredly I will join," Sir Edmund exclaimed, when Oswald brought his story to a conclusion.