154 
BIEDS IN A VILLAGE. 
upon his lip is wine " — and books " clothed in black 
and red," all natural sights and sounds also " filled 
his herte with pleasure and solass/' and the early 
crowing of the cock was a part of the minstrelsy 
he loved. Perhaps when lying awake during the 
dark quiet hours, and listening to just such a note 
as this, he conceived and composed that wonderful 
tale of the "Nun's Priest," in which the whole 
character of Chanticleer, his glory and his foibles, 
together with the homely virtues of Dame Partlett, 
are so admirably set forth. 
And longer ago it was i)erhaps such a note as 
this, heard in imagination by the cock-loving 
Athenians, which all at once made them feel so 
unutterably weary of endless fighting with the 
Lacedsemonians, and inspired their hearts with 
such a passionate desire for the long untasted 
sweets of security and repose. Is it one of my 
morning fancies merely — ^for fact and fancy mingle 
strangely at this still, mysterious hour, and are 
scarcely distinguishable — or is it related in history 
that this strange thing happened when all the 
people of the violet-crowned city were gathered to 
witness a solemn tragedy, in which certain verses 
were spoken that had a strange meaning to their 
war- weary souls ? " Those who sleep in the morn- 
ing in the arms of peace do not start from them at 
the sound of the trumpet, and nothing interrupts 
