At a word of encouragement from Bretwul the dogs, with wagging tails, immediately clapped nose to ground, and commenced threading in and out amongst the gorse and brushwood to start the game. Presently a loud fluttering of wings and a scream, sent the hawks into a violent agitation, and a handsome-plumaged pheasant took to wing. Ethel immediately whipped off the hood of her hawk, and quick almost as a flash of lightning it covered the helpless quarry. Then down it swooped, and a struggling mass of feathers and mingled plumage came fluttering to the ground.
"Oh, that is wretchedly poor, Bretwul!" exclaimed Ethel impatiently. "I like a good long chase which puts master Grey-eye thoroughly upon his mettle. Such sluggard creatures as that one are poor sport. Come, let us climb higher, for amid yon gorse and bracken on the hill we shall meet with partridge, moorfowl, or perhaps, better still, a woodcock. Then we shall test the mettle of little Grey-eye." So together they clambered through the brackened steep, until they reached the fringe of the heather which crowned the brow of the hill. Soon they espied a covey of grouse racing along before them stealthily amid the cover; but promptly these sprang aloft with whirring sound of wing, and loud, peculiar cries. Ethel again unhoods her favourite falcon, Grey-eye, and flings him towards the game. But the falcon has another matter in hand than that of bringing down a sluggard pheasant; for moorfowl, when fairly on the wing, scud along like the wind. Immediately also when they perceived the enemy in pursuit they changed their tactics, and, quitting the mountain side, made a dart for the valley, where shelter was to be had. Plump and heavy, the descent suits them more than the falcon; and with impetuous whirl they rush along with incredible speed. It seems as though the hawk will never head them! The valley is reached, and the moorfowl, flying low, are hidden from view by the tops of the trees; but the hawk can be seen scudding along above them.
"Oh, my poor Grey-eye, you are beaten this time, I do believe!" cried Ethel. But just at that moment there was an arrow-like swoop. "Bravo!" she shouted. "He has struck his quarry, for he never swoops to miss! Come along, Bretwul, or he will gorge himself, and then he will fly no more to-day, the greedy little glutton!" Then away she raced down the rough declivity, leaving her maid panting and trembling far behind.
"There she goes! there she goes! Plague on the girl!" ejaculated Bretwul. "Did ever mortal see such a girl? She's like a two-year-old filly that has never had bit in mouth or harness to back; and if she throw out a splint or strain a fetlock, why then the old thane will cozen my back with a cudgel, and call me a lazy lout of a churl. Come along, Eadburgh, my buxom lass, I have finished my wattled cote in the dell yonder, and if we come well out of this, we'll get the girl to wheedle the master for us, and then it will be done in a twinkling; for he's ready enough when Dame Ethel lays on the butter." So together they stumbled after their mistress with might and main.
But the girl mood was uppermost in the damsel now, and away she flew down the hill with her long hair streaming behind her, giving never a thought to man or maid. She came to a halt, however, when she reached the spot where apparently Grey-eye had made his swoop. But not a trace of either falcon or victim was to be seen. In vain she blew a tiny silver whistle with which she was wont to call her hawks. There was no response. "The greedy fellow is gorging himself I doubt not, Bretwul," cried Ethel impatiently. "If you feed him before flying he is too lazy to exert himself, and if he hunt on an empty stomach he must needs turn glutton after this fashion."
At that moment the clear blast of a hunter's horn in the distance broke upon the ears of the three seekers, and Ethel, hastily turning in the direction, exclaimed, "Oh, dear me! Eadburgh, straighten my hair for me, quick. Do I look a gowk? Do be quick! Straighten my cloak out. Those gallant gentlemen are returning who would not let me take part in the boar hunt because I was a girl, honest Beowulf was pleased to say. But Master Oswald was no better, though he has spent so much time about the court, and, I am told, carried off the Queen's favour at the tilt ground at Westminster, and that too against the picked squires of Normandy. I suppose I was only a girl in his eyes too, though he was not pleased to say it, like Beowulf. Never mind, I will let them see I can amuse myself, and find good sport too, without them."
Presently a couple of horsemen issued from the forest, clad in hunters' attire, with a green baldric over their shoulders and down to their waists, from which was suspended a hunter's horn. These two were quickly followed by a retinue of rangers, serving men, and hounds, with the weapons of the chase—boar spears, javelins, and short swords; whilst over the backs of a couple of horses were thrown the carcasses of a pair of wild boar, the fruit of their morning's chase.
No sooner did these young chieftains set eyes on Ethel than the countenance of the younger of them was wreathed in smiles, and snatching his bugle from his belt he blew a mocking blast in the ear of the damsel; then, in the blandest of tones, and with an assumption of mock gallantry, he saluted the maiden: "Bon matin, madame. Are you taking a little gentle exercise in company of your maid?" and he doffed his hunter's bonnet and made a most pretentious bow.
"I beg your pardon, gallant sir," retorted Ethel, with a gracious inclination, parodying with inimitable grace and humour his mock gallantry, "but if it please you, sir, I am not taking a little gentle exercise in company of my maid, I am hawking, as you may easily see if you care to."
"Oh, I see quite easily, madame. So you determined to have a little sport all to yourself because we disdained the company of a lady at our boar hunt?" said the young man, with a twinkle in his eye.