Both Sides the Border

Both Sides the Border, by G. A.
Henty,

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Illustrated by Ralph Peacock
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Title: Both Sides the Border A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower
Author: G. A. Henty

Release Date: August 17, 2006 [eBook #19070]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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SIDES THE BORDER***
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BOTH SIDES THE BORDER:
A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower
by
G. A. HENTY.
Illustrated by Ralph Peacock

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 most
stirring in the history of England. Owen Glendower carried fire and
slaughter among the Welsh marches, captured most of the strong places
held by the English, and foiled three invasions, led by the king himself.
The northern borders were invaded by Douglas; who, after devastating
a large portion of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham, was
defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon, by the Earl of
Northumberland, and his son Hotspur. Then followed the strange and

unnatural coalition between the Percys, Douglas of Scotland,
Glendower of Wales, and Sir Edmund Mortimer--a coalition that would
assuredly have overthrown the king, erected the young Earl of March
as a puppet monarch under the tutelage of the Percys, and secured the
independence of Wales, had the royal forces arrived one day later at
Shrewsbury, and so allowed the confederate armies to unite.
King Henry's victory there, entailing the death of Hotspur and the
capture of Douglas, put an end to this formidable insurrection; for,
although the Earl of Northumberland twice subsequently raised the
banner of revolt, these risings were easily crushed; while Glendower's
power waned, and order, never again to be broken, was at length
restored in Wales. The continual state of unrest and chronic warfare,
between the inhabitants of both sides of the border, was full of
adventures as stirring and romantic as that in which the hero of the
story took part.
G. A. Henty.
Chapter 1
: A Border Hold.
A lad was standing on the little lookout turret, on the top of a border
fortalice. The place was evidently built solely with an eye to defence,
comfort being an altogether secondary consideration. It was a square
building, of rough stone, the walls broken only by narrow loopholes;
and the door, which was ten feet above the ground, was reached by
broad wooden 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 divided
into several chambers, which were the sleeping places of its lord and
master, his family, and the women of the household. The floor below,
onto which the door from without opened, was undivided save by two
rows of stone pillars that supported the beams of the floor above. In one
corner the floor, some fifteen feet square, was raised somewhat above
the general level. This was set aside for the use of the master and the

family. The rest of the apartment was used as the living and sleeping
room of the followers, and hinds, of the fortalice.
The basement--which, although on a level with the ground outside,
could be approached only by a trapdoor and ladder from the room
above--was the storeroom, and contained sacks of barley and oatmeal,
sides of bacon, firewood, sacks of beans, and trusses of hay for the use
of the horses and cattle, should the place have to stand a short siege. In
the centre was a well.
The roof of the house was flat, and paved with square blocks of stone; a