`` Well , good-bye , '' said Alan , and held out his left hand . `` Good-bye , '' said I , and gave the hand a little grasp , and went off down hill . Neither one of us looked the other in the face , nor so long as he was in my view did I take one back glance at the friend I was leaving . But as I went on my way to the city , I felt so lost and lonesome , that I could have found it in my heart to sit down by the dyke , and cry and weep like any baby . It was coming near noon when I passed in by the West Kirk and the Grassmarket into the streets of the capital . The huge height of the buildings , running up to ten and fifteen storeys , the narrow arched entries that continually vomited passengers , the wares of the merchants in their windows , the hubbub and endless stir , the foul smells and the fine clothes , and a hundred other particulars too small to mention , struck me into a kind of stupor of surprise , so that I let the crowd carry me to and fro ; and yet all the time what I was thinking of was Alan at Rest-and-be-Thankful ; and all the time -LRB- although you would think I would not choose but be delighted with these braws and novelties -RRB- there was a cold gnawing in my inside like a remorse for something wrong . PROLOGUE -- JOHN AMEND-ALL On a certain afternoon , in the late springtime , the bell upon Tunstall Moat House was heard ringing at an unaccustomed hour . Far and near , in the forest and in the fields along the river , people began to desert their labours and hurry towards the sound ; and in Tunstall hamlet a group of poor country-folk stood wondering at the summons . Tunstall hamlet at that period , in the reign of old King Henry VI. , wore much the same appearance as it wears to-day . A score or so of houses , heavily framed with oak , stood scattered in a long green valley ascending from the river . At the foot , the road crossed a bridge , and mounting on the other side , disappeared into the fringes of the forest on its way to the Moat House , and further forth to Holywood Abbey . Half-way up the village , the church stood among yews . On every side the slopes were crowned and the view bounded by the green elms and greening oak-trees of the forest . Hard by the bridge , there was a stone cross upon a knoll , and here the group had collected -- half a dozen women and one tall fellow in a russet smock -- discussing what the bell betided . An express had gone through the hamlet half an hour before , and drunk a pot of ale in the saddle , not daring to dismount for the hurry of his errand ; but he had been ignorant himself of what was forward , and only bore sealed letters from Sir Daniel Brackley to Sir Oliver Oates , the parson , who kept the Moat House in the master 's absence . But now there was the noise of a horse ; and soon , out of the edge of the wood and over the echoing bridge , there rode up young Master Richard Shelton , Sir Daniel 's ward . He , at the least , would know , and they hailed him and begged him to explain . He drew bridle willingly enough -- a young fellow not yet eighteen , sun-browned and grey-eyed , in a jacket of deer 's leather , with a black velvet collar , a green hood upon his head , and a steel cross-bow at his back . The express , it appeared , had brought great news . A battle was impending .
Sir XXXXX had sent for every man that could draw a bow or carry a bill to go post-haste to Kettley , under pain of his severe displeasure ; but for whom they were to fight , or of where the battle was expected , Dick knew nothing .
Daniel afternoon cross-bow fringes hour labours left noon smock yews