utes, would not work under
fourpence a day, and all society was chaos. In addition, the Scotch
were growling over the border, there was the perennial trouble in
half-conquered Ireland, and his allies abroad in Flanders and in Brabant
were clamoring for the arrears of their subsidies.

All this was enough to make even a victorious monarch full of care; but
now Edward had thrown it all to the winds and was as light-hearted as
a boy upon a holiday. No thought had he for the dunning of Florentine
bankers or the vexatious conditions of those busybodies at Westminster.
He was out with his hawks, and his thoughts and his talk should be of
nothing else. The varlets beat the heather and bushes as they passed,
and whooped loudly as the birds flew out.

"A magpie! A magpie!" cried the falconer.

"Nay, nay, it is not worthy of your talons, my brown-eyed queen," said
the King, looking up at the great bird which flapped from side to
side above his head, waiting for the whistle which should give her the
signal. "The tercels, falconer--a cast of tercels! Quick, man, quick!
Ha! the rascal makes for wood! He puts in! Well flown, brave peregrine!
He makes his point. Drive him out to thy comrade. Serve him, varlets!
Beat the bushes! He breaks! He breaks! Nay, come away then! You will see
Master Magpie no more."

The bird had indeed, with the cunning of its race, flapped its way
through brushwood and bushes to the thicker woods beyond, so that
neither the hawk amid the cover nor its partner above nor the clamorous
beaters could harm it. The King laughed at the mischance and rode on.
Continually birds of various sorts were flushed, and each was pursued
by the appropriate hawk, the snipe by the tercel, the partridge by the
goshawk, even the lark by the little merlin. But the King soon tired of
this petty sport and went slowly on his way, still with the magnificent
silent attendant flapping above his head.

"Is she not a noble bird, fair son?" he asked, glancing up as her shadow
fell upon him.

"She is indeed, sire. Surely no finer ever came from the isles of the
north."

"Perhaps not, and yet I have had a hawk from Barbary as good a footer
and a swifter flyer. An Eastern bird in yarak has no peer."

"I had one once from the Holy Land," said de Manny. "It was fierce and
keen and swift as the Saracens themselves. They say of old Saladin that
in his day his breed of birds, of hounds and of horses had no equal on
earth."

"I trust, de