"
"_I_ daunt him?" returned Lord Whitburn, in his teasing mood. "By
his own showing not a troop of Somerset's best horsemen could do
that!"
Therewith more amicably, father and son fell to calculations of
resources, which they kept up all through supper-time, and all the
evening, till the names of Hobs, Wills, Dicks, and the like rang like
a repeating echo in Grisell's ears. All through those long days of
summer the father and son were out incessantly, riding from one
tenant or neighbour to another, trying to raise men-at-arms and means
to equip them if raised. All the dues on the herring-boats and the
two whalers, on which Grisell had reckoned for the winter needs, were
pledged to Sunderland merchants for armour and weapons; the colts
running wild on the moors were hastily caught, and reduced to a kind
of order by rough breaking in. The women of the castle and others
requisitioned from the village toiled under the superintendence of
the lady and Grisell at preparing such provision and equipments as
were portable, such as dried fish, salted meat, and barley cakes, as
well as linen, and there was a good deal of tailoring of a rough sort
at jerkins, buff coats, and sword belts, not by any means the gentle
work of embroidering pennons or scarves notable in romance.
"Besides," scoffed Robert, "who would wear Grisly Grisell's scarf!"
"I would," manfully shouted Bernard; "I would cram it down the throat
of that recreant Copeland.
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