24 : THE BOY CRUSADERS,

the abbey of Newminster, she lived in great fear of
the Lord, and with an equal love for her neighbours,
especially such as were poor; and she prudently
managed us and our property. Scarcely had we
learned the first elements of letters, which she her-
self, being convent-bred, taught us, when, eager to
have us instructed, she confided us to a master
of grammar, who incited us to work, and taught
us to recite verses and compose them according to
rule.’

It was while the brothers Espec were studying
under this master of grammar, and indulging with
spirit and energy in the sports and recreations
fashionable among the boys of the thirteenth
century —such as playing with whirligigs and paper
windmills, and mimic engines of war, and trundling
hoops, and shooting with bows and arrows, and learn-
ing to swim on bladders, that Dame Algitha followed
her husband to a better world, and they found them-
selves orphans and unprotected. For both, however,
Providence raised up friends in the day of need.
Remembering what he owed to his connection with
the Especs, the Lord de Roos received Walter into his
castle of Wark, to be trained to arms; and another
kinsman, who was a prior in France, received Osbert
into his convent, to be reared asa monk. The orphans,
who had never before been separated, and who were
fondly attached, parted after many embraces, and
many tears ; and, with as little knowledge of the world
into which they were entering as fishes have of the
sea in which they swim, each went where destiny.
seemed to point the way.