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"Whistle hierfalcon!" cried the Bishop

"Nay, nay, he is overfar She would fly at check"

"Now, sire, now!" cried the Prince, as the great bird with the breeze behind hiave the shrill whistle, and the well-trained hawk raked out to the right and to the left tothe heron, she shot up in a swift ascending curve to , clapping his hands to encourage the hahile the falconers broke into the shrill whoop peculiar to the sport

Going on her curve, the haould soon have crossed the path of the heron; but the latter, seeing the danger in his front and confident in his own great strength of wing and lightness of body, proceeded to s that to the spectators it al perpendicularly upward

"He takes the air!" cried the King "But strong as he flies, he cannot out fly Margot Bishop, I lay you ten gold pieces to one that the heron is er, sire," said the Bishop "I old so won, and yet I warrant that there is an altar-cloth soood store of altar-cloths, Bishop, if all the gold I have seen you win at tables goes to the"Ah! by the rood, rascal, rascal! See how she flies at check!"

The quick eyes of the Bishop had perceived a drift of rooks when on their evening flight to the rookery were passing along the very line which divided the hawk from the heron A rook is a hard temptation for a hawk to resist In an instant the inconstant bird had forgotten all about the great heron above her and was circling over the rooks, flying ith theled out the plumpest for her stoop

"There is yet time, sire! Shall I cast off her mate?" cried the falconer

"Or shall I show you, sire, how a peregrine olden pieces to one upon , his brow dark with vexation "By the rood! if you were as learned in the fathers as you are in hawks you would win to the throne of Saint Peter! Cast off your peregrine and erfalcon, the Bishop's bird was none the less a swift and beautiful creature From her perch upon his wrist she had watched with fierce, keen eyes the birds in the heaven, erness Nohen the button was undone and the leash uncast the peregrine dashed off with a whir of her sharp-pointed wings, whizzing round in a great ascending circle whichever smaller as she approached that lofty point where, a ht escape froher the two birds mounted, while the horsemen, their faces upturned, strained their eyes in their efforts to follow them