h in the air, and never swooping down.
The King's Son fitted an arrow to his bow and shot at the falcon.
Immediately it rose in the air and flew swiftly away, but a feather from
it fell before him. The King's Son picked the feather up. It was a blue
feather. Then the King's Son thought of Fedelma's falcon--of the bird
that flew above them when they rode across the Meadows of Brightness.
It might be Fedelma's falcon, the one he had shot at, and it might have
come to show him the way to the Land of Mist. But the falcon was not to
be seen now.

He did not go amongst the strangers in his father's Castle that evening;
but he stood with Art who was watching the herdsmen drive the cattle
into the byres. And Art after a while said, "I will tell you more about
the coming of the King of the Cats into King Connal's Dominion. And as
before I say

"To your father's Son in all truth be it told "--

The King of the Cats waited on the branch of the tree until the moon
was in the sky like a roast duck on a dish of gold, and still neither
retainer, vassal nor subject came to do him service. He was vexed, I
tell you, at the want of respect shown him.

This was the reason why none of his subjects came to him for such a long
time: The man and woman he had spoken to went into their house and did
not say a word about the King of the Cats until they had eaten their
supper. Then when the man had smoked his second pipe, he said to the
woman: "That was a wonderful thing that happened to us to-day. A cat to
walk up to two Christians and say to them, 'Tell the ashy pet in your
chimney corner at home that the King of the Cats has come to see him.'"

No sooner were the words said than the lean, gray, ash-covered cat that
lay on the hearthstone sprang on the back of the man's chair.

"I will say this," said the man; "it's a bad time when two Christians
like ourselves are stopped on their way back from the market and
ordered--ordered, no less--to give a message to one's own cat lying on
one's own hearthstone."

"By my fur and daws, you're a long time coming to his message," said the
cat on the back of the chair; "what was it, anyway?"

"The King of the Cats has come to Ireland to see you," said the man,
very much surprised.

"It's a wonder you told it at all," said the cat, going to the door.
"And where did you see His Majesty?"

"You shouldn't have spoken," said the man's wife.

"And how did I know a cat could understand?" said the man.