I 
134 
THE ROMANCE OF CHIVALRY. 
their pinions ; and when that arrived, rushing almost perpendicularly 
on their heedless prey. 
Their cries also resemble those of the peregrine falcon, in their 
loudness, shrillness, and penetrating quality. Now and then they 
alight on some of the tall stakes placed along the shore as landmarks 
for the adventurous fishermen who visit the storm-beaten coast, and 
stand for a few minutes, not erect like most other hawks, but in the 
position of a tern; after which they return to their ordinary pursuits, 
and pounce upon a puffin, while the poor bird stands on the ground 
at the very mouth of his burrow, apparently quite unaware of the 
approach of his formidable persecutors. It does not seem that they 
are in any way impeded by their burden. After rising in the air, 
they simply shake themselves as if to arrange their plumage, — just 
as the osprey does when he rises from the water with a fish in his 
talons. 
Our reference to the peregrine falcon will at once carry back 
the reader's memory to the " olden times " of chivalry, before the 
schoolmaster and the policeman combined had swept the Romantic 
clean from the face of the earth. On the darker aspects of the feudal 
regime we are not inclined to dwell, when the song of the poet lifts us 
above the ordinary level of commonplace, and the horn of the hunter, 
as it rings through the merry greenwood, awakens bright recollections 
of all that was so picturesque and graceful. We shut our eyes to the 
reign of cruelty and the harshness of despotism ; to the burgher heavily 
taxed by arbitrary prince ; to the peasant labouring under a grievous 
oppression ; to the absence of order and the feebleness of law ; and 
we open them only to gay scenes in luxurious medieval courts, to the 
movement and parade of the festival and the tourney. We see the 
castle-gate thrown wide, and issuing forth, a fair procession of knights 
and ladies, bright with nodding plumes and waving scarfs, caracole 
towards the neighbouring forest to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. 
The pastime was suited to an unlettered and restless age, when, to the 
rich and powerful, as 5'et but imperfectly versed in the arts and cul- 
ture of peace, leisure must have been an intolerable burden. But the 
