'I have a most particular and weighty reason for wishing to go,' said the sturdy knight.
'I can well believe it,' returned Sir Nigel; 'I have met no man who is quicker to follow where honour leads.'
'Nay, it is not for honour that I go, Nigel,'
'For what then?'
'For pullets.'
'Pullets?'
'Yes, for the rascal vanguard have cleared every hen from the country-side. It was this very morning that Norbury, my squire, lamed his horse in riding round in quest of one, for we have a bag of truffles, and nought to eat with them. Never have I seen such locusts as this vanguard of ours. Not a pullet shall we see until we are in front of them; so I shall leave my Winchester runagates to the care of the provost-marshal, and I shall hie south with you, Nigel, with my truffles at my saddle-bow.'
'Oliver, Oliver, I know you over well,' said Sir Nigel, shaking his head, and the two old soldiers rode off together to their pavilion.
CHAPTER XXXV
HOW SIR NIGEL HAWKED AT AN EAGLE
To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, brown or grey in colour, and strewn with huge boulders of granite. On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been running streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages. Here, on the contrary, were nothing but naked rocks, poor pasture, and savage stone-strewn wastes. Gloomy defiles or barrancas intersected this wild country with mountain torrents dashing and foaming between their rugged sides. The clatter of waters, the scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves, were the only sounds which broke upon the silence in, that dreary and inhospitable region.
