y cocks and hounds and men. I will
range the world openly now and seek out the enemy of the Cat-Kind, the
Eagle-Emperor."

Without once turning his back he went towards the wood that was filled
with his enemies, the birds. The cats, when they saw their petitions
were no use, went everyone back to the house where he or she stayed.
Each one sat before a mouse-hole and pretended to be watching. But
though mice stirred all round them the cats of Ireland never turned a
head that night.

It was the wren, the smallest of birds, that saw him and knew him for
the King of the Cats. The wren flew through the wood to summon the
Hawk-Clan. But it was towards sunset now and the hawks had taken up
their stations at the edge of the wood to watch that they might pick up
the farmers' chickens. They wouldn't turn an eye when the wren told
them that a cat was in the wood during the time forbidden to cats to be
outside the houses of men. "It is the King of the Cats," said the wren.
None of the hawks lifted a wing. They were waiting for the chickens that
would stray about the moment after sunset.

But if the wren couldn't rouse the Hawk-Clan she was able to rouse the
other bird-tribes. "A cat, a cat, on your lives a cat," she called out
as she flew through the wood. The rooks that were going home now rose
above the trees, cawing threats. The blackbirds, thrushes and jays
screamed as they flew before the King of the Cats. The woodpeckers,
hedge-sparrows, tom-tits, robins and linnets chattered as they flew
behind him. Sometimes the young rooks made a great show of attacking
him. They flew down from the flock. "He is here, here, here," they cawed
and flew up again. The rooks kept telling themselves and the other birds
in the wood what they were going to do with the King of the Cats. But a
single raven did more against him than the thousand rooks that made so
much noise. This raven was in a hole in the tree. She struck the King of
the Cats on the head with her beak as he went past.

The King of the Cats was annoyed by the uproar the birds were making and
he was angered by the raven's stroke, but he did not want to enter into
a battle with the birds. He was on his way to the house of the Hag of
the Wood who was then known as the Hag of the Ashes. Now as this is the
first time you have heard of the Hag of the Ashes, I'll have to tell
you how the King of the Cats had heard of her and how he knew where her
house was in the wood.

V

The