106 THE HERON OF CASTLE CREEK 



his lonely excursions invariably wore strung at 

 his baldric, and, at the first nervous note, had 

 been surprised to see his friends the bowmen 

 leap from the thicket and stand before him, 

 beating off the persistent creature with their 

 stout hog-spears. 



It was, after all, fortunate for the heron that 

 she had been wounded and imprisoned in the 

 decoy by the mill. For, during the visit of the 

 King's Justiciar to the Marshes, hunting and 

 hawking had seemed to be the order of the day, 

 and lords and ladies, with their trains of hunts- 

 men, falconers, and servitors, had scoured the 

 wide countryside in search of sport. Herons and 

 bitterns, in particular, had suffered ; and the 

 smaller birds had been so often flushed and 

 frightened that they either hid in terror or flew 

 away with reckless speed when Renoult appeared 

 near their accustomed haunts. 



When spring was well advanced, and the 

 leaves were opening on the forest boughs and 

 the marigolds were blooming by the now unused 

 decoy, Renoult 's desire to wander far from 

 home became stronger and still stronger. Out 

 on a bright, fresh morning near the edge of a 

 marsh along the river, he saw a heron — ^that, 

 from the condition of her damaged pinion, he 

 recognised as the bird he had shot — descending 

 leisurely to the shores of a little lake in the 



