THE WOUNDED HERON 105 



him — affectioiiafce, yet respectful as became their 

 rank — was quickly renewed. 



Eenoult led an almost unfettered life. The 

 Earl, famed as in every respect the greatest 

 military leader among the Norman Barons of 

 the day, was strict and unrelaxing in the 

 discipline of his soldiery. Each beacon fire on 

 fche hill-tops of his broad domain was ever ready 

 for the torch of the sentinel ; the sleepless 

 sentinel was ever ready to kindle it on the 

 approach of a marauding band. '^ Watching, 

 and in arms " was the motto on the escutcheon 

 of this magnate of the Western Marches. When- 

 ever Renoult wandered alone he was followed, 

 as by an invisible shadow, by one or both of his 

 personal attendants, and, if his rambles led 

 far from the Castle, a troop of horse, presumably 

 engaged in military exercises, often crossed his 

 path or moved along an adjoining hillside. 

 Hard, indeed, without a doubt, would it have 

 been for the leader of that troop if Renoult had 

 been kidnapped in a robber raid ; hard, also, 

 for the faithful foresters if wolf or boar had 

 wrought him harm. Once, during a ramble 

 through the woods, Renoult had happened on a 

 rutting stag in company with a herd of timid 

 hinds. Frightened by the threatening behaviour 

 of the jealous beast, he had lifted to his lips the 

 horn that, by his father's strictest orders, he on 



