ther, as the tapestry is supposed more
strongly to indicate, he obtained Edward's reluctant consent to his
visit to reclaim his brother who, a hostage for his own good conduct,
had been sent to William by Edward; these are points which now defy
investigation, even if they were of sufficient importance to claim it.
Harold is then seen on his journey attended by cavaliers on horseback,
surrounded by dogs, and, an emblem of his own high dignity, a hawk on
his fist.

One great value of this tapestry is the scrupulous regard paid to
points and circumstances which at first view might appear
insignificant, but which, as correlative confirmations of usages and
facts, are of considerable importance. Thus, it is known to
antiquarians that great personages formerly had two only modes of
equipment when proceeding on a journey, that of war or the chase.
Harold is here fully equipped for the chase, and consequently the
first glimpse obtained of his person would show that his errand was
one of peace. The hawk on the fist was a mark of high nobility: no
inferior person is represented with one: Harold and Guy Earl of
Ponthieu alone bear them.

In former times this bird was esteemed so sacred that it was
prohibited in the ancient laws for any one to give his hawk even as a
part of his ransom. In the reign of Edward the Third it was made
felony to steal a hawk; and to take its eggs, even in a person's own
ground, was punishable with imprisonment for a year and a day, besides
a fine at the king's pleasure. Nay, more than this, by the laws of one
part of the island, and probably of the whole,[32] the price of a
hawk, or of a greyhound, was once the very same with the price of a
man; and there was a time when the robbing of a hawk's nest was as
great a crime in the eye of the law, and as severely punished, as the
murder of a Christian. And of this high value they were long
considered. "It is difficult," says Mr. Mills,[33] "to fancy the
extravagant degree of estimation in which hawks were held during the
chivalric ages. As symbols of high estate they were constantly carried
about by the nobility of both sexes. There was even a usage of
bringing them into places appropriated to public worship; a practice
which, in the case of some individuals, appears to have been
recognised as a right. The treasurer of the church of Auxerre enjoyed
the distinction of assisting at divine service on solemn days with a
falcon on his fist; and the Lord of Sas