"By St Edmund, thy falcon hath risen above the heron, and will strike in another second!" This was too much for Ralph. With a joyous bound he left the new-comers on his pony, and ran after his brother, just in time to see his gerfalcon give a swoop, and the next minute descend like a falling bolt right on to the doomed heron, who, however, with prompt instinct, turned up its long neck, and held its beak like a sword on which the falcon should impale itself. "Gare beak, my beauty; strike him sideways. There, by all the saints, she has done it! There they come. Ah! Melampus; ah! Ringwood; heel, sir, heel!" And the boy ran as hard as he could to the spot where the heron, still struggling, but feebly, was falling with the hawk’s claws and talons fixed firmly in its back, and its strong beak pecking into its brain. "Well done! well sped, brave bird!" cried Ralph joyously. "Ay, but I have lost my riding-whip," said Jasper ruefully. "Nay, Jasp, I will never take it; ’twas but in sport." And thus the first flight of Ralph’s gerfalcon ended. They recalled the goshawk, and with hawks hooded, jesses on legs, and fast on fists, they returned home, carrying the heron with them. *CHAPTER II.* *HOW THE FLEDGLING LEFT THE NEST.* When the boys drew near home, talking volubly all the time, as boys do, and wondering whether the poor man and his daughter had reached the manor before them, they met Humphrey, who was returning from Salisbury with the tailor and the new horse. Ralph descried them some way off, and darted away like a hare, before Jasper and the groom had guessed the cause of his flight. Breathless the boy ran up to Humphrey, and could scarcely pour out the torrent of questions, mingled with ejaculations of pleasure and admiration, with which he overwhelmed the varlet, so scant of breath was he. The horse was certainly a beauty, and did great credit to the taste and judgment of the worthy Abbot of Quarr. "Ay, certes ’tis a fine beast; but the main fault, to my mind, is that he’s too much for thee, Master Ralph. ’Tis a mettlesome hackney, and I don’t marvel that fat Prior of Christchurch wanted to part with him. He’ll find a difference between thy light weight and that old round shaveling yonder." "Tush! Humphrey, let me get on him, that’s all--an I bring him not to reason, beshrew me for a dullard and walk-a-foot." By this time Jasper and the other groom had come up, and they were loud in their praises of the new horse. "My faith! Ralph, thou’rt in luck to-day," said Jasper, somewhat discontentedly. "Thy falcon hath beat mine, and now thou ownest a horse the best, well-nigh, to look at in our stables. Thou’rt a lucky wight, that thou art." They were approaching the manor house, and as they came within sight of the old buildings, they saw the Abbot of Quarr coming out of the hall door with Lady Lisle.