We have nought that they can take from us, but our lives, while we take our share of the booty, and have the ransom of any knights or gentlemen we may make prisoners." Accordingly they went into Alnwick, and Alwyn Forster bought for his nephew several suits of clothes, suitable for a young gentleman of good family; together with armour, of much more modern fashion than that to which Oswald was accustomed.

When they returned to the castle, the lad was told to put on one of these suits, at once.
"Make your old ones up in a bundle," his uncle said.

"There may be occasions when you may find such clothes useful; though here, assuredly, they are out of place.

Now, I will go with you to Father Ernulf." The priest's abode was in what was called the Abbots' Tower, which was the one nearest to the large monastery, outside the walls.
"I told you, father," the captain said, "that belike my nephew would join me here, as I was going to present him to Sir Henry Percy.

The good knight will not be back again, mayhap, for some weeks; and the lad has a fancy to learn to read and write, and I thought you might put him in the way of his attaining such knowledge." "He looks as if the sword will suit his hand better than the pen," the priest said, with a smile, as his eye glanced over the lad's active figure.