NORTHUMBERLAND            How far is it to Berkeley, and what stir

Keeps good old York there with his men of war?

PERCY                                    There stands the castle by yon tuft of trees,

Manned with three hundred men, as I have heard,

And in it are the lords of York, Berkeley and Seymour,

None else of name and noble estimate.

Enter Ross and Willoughby

NORTHUMBERLAND            Here come the lords of Ross and Willoughby,

Bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste. (2.3.51-58)

Perhaps a sense of Northumberland wanting to get Bolingbroke’s attention back, rather than being upstaged by his son? So he repeats the question posed by Bolingbroke himself at the beginning of the scene, before Harry Percy’s arrival: How far is it to Berkeley? And what’s good old York up to there with his men of war? How many men has York got, basically. Good old York is interesting; Northumberland isn’t going to condemn him outright for his loyalty to the King (York is, after all, regent), and he could be being a touch patronising and ironic? (the emphasis on old, as ever). Bolingbroke and Northumberland and their companions are at Berkeley already, in effect (it perhaps makes Northumberland look a little less than competent, that they were so very close and he really did have no idea), but, more than that, it suggests that some kind of confrontation (even if not yet a military one) will happen very soon. Things are starting to move. York has three hundred men, or so the gossip has it—but although York has Seymour and Berkeley with him (it is, after all, the latter’s castle) there are none else of name and noble estimate. The nobles of England have, it seems, mostly failed to rally to King Richard’s cause, even if they are not all yet in open rebellion against him. More attention-seeking from Northumberland? Look, it’s Ross and Willoughby, bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste. I still got to you first, though, Bolingbroke, remember that, and at least I’m not all sweaty.