Some soldiers were loitering at the door.
"What do you want, lad ?" one of them asked, as he came up.
"I have a letter, which I am charged to deliver into the governor's own hands." "A complaint, I suppose, from some worthy prior, who has lost some of his beeves ?" "Maybe the governor will inform you, if you ask him," Oswald replied.
"I shall pull your ear for you, when you come out, young jackanapes," the soldier said, hotly.
"That danger I must even risk.

Business first, and pleasure afterwards." And while the other soldiers burst into a fit of laughter, at the astonishment of their comrade at what he deemed the insolence of this young servitor of a monastery, he quietly entered.

The guard at the door, who had heard the colloquy, led him into the governor's room.
"A messenger with a letter desires speech with you, Sir Philip," he said.
"Bid him enter," the knight said, briefly.
Oswald entered, and bowed deeply.

He waited until the door closed behind the attendant, and then said: "I am the bearer of a letter, sir, from Lord Percy to you." The knight looked at him in surprise.
"Hotspur has chosen a strange messenger," he muttered to himself, as he took the missive Oswald held out to him, cut the silk that bound it with a dagger, and read its contents.

As he laid it down, he rose to his feet.
"Excuse my want of courtesy," he said.