Chapter 23 - Page 2

bargain, or make your bargain, I care not
which--the man will not wait for you--he has good proffers from
the Seneschal of Malpas, and the Welsh Lord of Dinevawr."

"I come--I come," said Raoul, who felt the necessity of embracing
this opportunity of improving his hawking establishment, and
hastened to the gate, where he met the merchant, attended by a
servant, who kept in separate cages the three falcons which he
offered for sale.

The first glance satisfied Raoul that they were of the best breed
in Europe, and that, if their education were in correspondence to
their race, there could scarce be a more valuable addition even to
a royal mews. The merchant did not fail to enlarge upon all their
points of excellence; the breadth of their shoulders, the strength
of their train, their full and fierce dark eyes, the boldness with
which they endured the approach of strangers, and the lively
spirit and vigour with which they pruned their plumes, and shook,
or, as it was technically termed, roused themselves. He expatiated
on the difficulty and danger with which they were obtained from
the rock of Ramsey, on which they were bred, and which was an
every unrivalled even on the coast of Norway.

Raoul turned apparently a deaf ear to all these commendations.
"Friend merchant," said he, "I know a falcon as well as thou dost,
and I will not deny that thine are fine ones; but if they be not
carefully trained and reclaimed, I would rather have a goss-hawk
on my perch than the fairest falcon that ever stretched wing to
weather."

"I grant ye," said the merchant; "but if we agree on the price,
for that is the main matter, thou shalt see the birds fly if thou
wilt, and then buy them or not as thou likest. I am no true
merchant if thou ever saw'st birds beat them, whether at the mount
or the stoop."

"That I call fair," said Raoul, "if the price be equally so."

"It shall be corresponding," said the hawk-merchant; "for I have
brought six casts from the island, by the good favour of good King
Reginald of Man, and I have sold every feather of them save these;
and so, having emptied my cages and filled my purse, I desire not
to be troubled longer with the residue; and if a good fellow and a
judge, as thou seemest to be, should like the hawks when he has
seen them fly, he shall have the price of his own making."

"Go to," said Raoul, "we will have no blind bargains; my lady, if
the hawks be suitable, is more able to pay for them than thou to
give them away. Will a bezant be a conformable price for the
cast?"

"A bezant, Master Falconer!--By my faith, you are no bold