"No, nor kestrils like him that hears it," replied Gillian; "but brave jerfalcons, with large nares, strongly armed, and beaks short and something bluish--" "Pshaw, with thy jargon!--Where came they from?" said Raoul, interested in the tidings, but unwilling to give his wife the satisfaction of seeing that he was so. "From the Isle of Man," replied Gillian. "They must be good, then, though it was a woman brought tidings of them," said Raoul, smiling grimly at his own wit; then, leaving the mews, he demanded to know where this famous falcon-merchant was to be met withal. "Why, between the barriers and the inner gate," replied Gillian, "where other men are admitted that have wares to utter--Where should he be?" "And who let him in?" demanded the suspicious Raoul. "Why, Master Steward, thou owl!" said Gillian; "he came but now to my chamber, and sent me hither to call you." "Oh, the steward--the steward--I might have guessed as much. And he came to thy chamber, doubtless, because he could not have as easily come hither to me himself.--Was it not so, sweetheart?" "I do not know why he chose to come to me rather than to you, Raoul," said Gillian; "and if I did know, perhaps I would not tell you. Go to--miss your 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."