WILD SWANS 85 



It is perhaps not generally known that Edward I. 

 of England took the swan for his badge or totem. 

 When his son the Prince of Wales was knighted, and 

 then conferred the Order on three hundred of his 

 companions of noble birth, two swans are said to have 

 been brought into the hall "gorgeously caparisoned, 

 and with their beaks gilded, a most pleasing sight to 

 all beholders," and upon these swans the King swore 

 before all his Court to avenge the death of Comyn, 

 whom Robert Bruce had stabbed in the church where 

 he had appointed a meeting to settle their claims to 

 the Scotch throne. 



