You had best moderate the speed of your horse, for although he ambles along merrily, at present, he can never carry that great carcase of yours, at this pace, through our journey." "I should like one good gallop," Roger sighed, as he pulled at the rein, and the horse proceeded at a pace better suited to the appearance of its rider.
"A nice figure you would look, with your robes streaming behind you," Oswald laughed.

"There would soon be a story going through the country, of a mad monk.
"Now, we take this turning to the right, and here leave the main north road, for we are bound, in the first place, to Roxburgh." "I thought that it must be that, or Berwick, though I asked no questions." "We shall not travel like this beyond Roxburgh, but shall journey forward on foot." "I supposed that we should come to that, Master Oswald, for otherwise you would not have told me to provide myself with a staff." They journeyed pleasantly along.

Whenever they approached any town or large village, Oswald reined back his horse a little, so that its head was on a level with Roger's stirrup.

They slept that night at Kirknewton, where they put up at a small hostelry.

Oswald had intended going to the monastery there, but Roger begged so earnestly that they should put up elsewhere, that he yielded to him.
"I should have no end of questions asked, as to our journey across the border, and its object," Roger said; "and it always goes against my conscience to have to lie, unless upon pressing occasions." "And, moreover," Oswald said, with a laugh, "you might be expected to get up to join the community at prayers, at midnight; and they might give you a monk's bed, instead of a more comfortable one in the guest chambers." "There may be something in that," Roger admitted, "and I have so often to sleep on a stone bench, for the punishment of my offences, that I own to a weakness for a soft bed, when I can get one." However, Oswald was pleased to see that his follower behaved, at their resting place, with more discretion than he could have hoped for; although he somewhat surprised his host, by the heartiness of his appetite; but, on the other hand, he was moderate in his potations, and talked but little, retiring to a bed of thick rushes, at curfew.
"In truth, I was afraid to trust myself," he said to Oswald, as they lay down side by side.