Contents Preface. Chapter 1: A Border Hold. Chapter 2: Across The Border. Chapter 3: At Alnwick. Chapter 4: An Unequal Joust. Chapter 5: A Mission. Chapter 6: At Dunbar. Chapter 7: Back To Hotspur. Chapter 8: Ludlow Castle. Chapter 9: The Welsh Rising. Chapter 10: A Breach Of Duty. Chapter 11: Bad News. Chapter 12: A Dangerous Mission. Chapter 13: Escape. Chapter 14: In Hiding. Chapter 15: Another Mission To Ludlow. Chapter 16: A Letter For The King. Chapter 17: Knighted. Chapter 18: Glendower. Chapter 19: The Battle Of Homildon Hill. Chapter 20: The Percys' Discontent. Chapter 21: Shrewsbury.Preface.The four opening years of the fifteenth century were among the moststirring in the history of England. Owen Glendower carried fire andslaughter among the Welsh marches, captured most of the strong placesheld by the English, and foiled three invasions, led by the kinghimself. The northern borders were invaded by Douglas; who, afterdevastating a large portion of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham,was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon, by the Earlof Northumberland, and his son Hotspur. Then followed the strange andunnatural coalition between the Percys, Douglas of Scotland, Glendowerof Wales, and Sir Edmund Mortimer--a coalition that would assuredlyhave overthrown the king, erected the young Earl of March as a puppetmonarch under the tutelage of the Percys, and secured the independenceof Wales, had the royal forces arrived one day later at Shrewsbury, andso allowed the confederate armies to unite.King Henry's victory there, entailing the death of Hotspur and thecapture of Douglas, put an end to this formidable insurrection; for,although the Earl of Northumberland twice subsequently raised thebanner of revolt, these risings were easily crushed; while Glendower'spower waned, and order, never again to be broken, was at lengthrestored in Wales. The continual state of unrest and chronic warfare,between the inhabitants of both sides of the border, was full ofadventures as stirring and romantic as that in which the hero of thestory took part.G. A. Henty.Chapter 1: A Border Hold.A lad was standing on the little lookout turret, on the top of a borderfortalice. The place was evidently built solely with an eye to defence,comfort being an altogether secondary consideration. It was a squarebuilding, of rough stone, the walls broken only by narrow loopholes;and the door, which was ten feet above the ground, was reached by broadwooden steps, which could be hauled up in case of necessity; and were,in fact, raised every night.The building was some forty feet square. The upper floor was dividedinto several chambers, which were the sleeping places of its lord andmaster, his family, and the women of the household. The floor below,onto which the door from without opened, was undivided save by two rowsof stone pillars that supported the beams of the floor above. In onecorner the floor, some fifteen feet square, was raised somewhat abovethe general level. This was set aside for the use of the master and thefamily. The rest of the apartment was used as the living and sleepingroom of the followers, and hinds, of the fortalice.