r that we are alike in our
ways of thinking. They call me the Dove from the shield I bear, and a
dove I seek to be in the winning of England. The hawk's task is over
when the battle is won, and he who has but the sword for weapon is no
hawk, but carrion-crow. We have to set our Duke on the throne, but that
is but the first step. There are more battles before us, and when they
are ended begins the slow task of the conquest of English hearts. How
say you, Jehan? Will you ride north with me on this errand, and out
of the lands which are granted me to govern have a corner on which to
practise your creed?"

So it befell that Jehan the Hunter, sometimes called Jehan the Outborn,
joined the company of Ivo of Dives, and followed him when Duke William
swept northward laughing his gross jolly laughter and swearing terribly
by the splendour of God.

Part 2

Two years later in the same month of the year Jehan rode east out of
Ivo's new castle of Belvoir to visit the manor of which, by the grace
of God and the King and the favour of the Count of Dives, he was now
the lord. By the Dove's side he had been north to Durham and west to the
Welsh marches, rather on falcon's than on dove's errands, for Ivo held
that the crooning of peace notes came best after hard blows. But at his
worst he was hawk and not crow, and malice did not follow his steps.
The men he beat had a rude respect for one who was just and patient in
victory, and whose laughter did not spare himself. Like master like man;
and Jehan was presently so sealed of Ivo's brotherhood that in the tales
of the time the two names were rarely separate. The jealous, swift to
deprecate good fortune, spared the Outborn, for it was observed that he
stood aside while others scrambled for gain. Also, though no man knew
his birth, he bore himself with the pride of a king.

When Ivo's raw stone towers faded in the blue distance, the road led
from shaggy uplands into a forested plain, with knolls at intervals
which gave the traveller a prospect of sullen levels up to the fringe of
the fens and the line of the sea. Six men-at-arms jolted at his back on
little country-red horses, for Jehan did his tasks with few helpers; and
they rode well in the rear, for he loved to be alone. The weather was
all October gleams and glooms, now the sunshine of April, now the purple
depths of a thunderstorm. There was no rain in the air, but an infinity
of mist, which moved in fantastic shapes, rolling clos