lestine over which the flag of the Cross still waves.
Where then was our ally?"

"Nay, sire, you open a great debate which extends far beyond this
question of the Holy Land, though that may indeed be chosen as a
fair example. It is the question of all sin, of all suffering, of
all injustice--why it should pass without the rain of fire and the
lightnings of Sinai. The wisdom of God is beyond our understanding."

The King shrugged his shoulders. "This is an easy answer, my Lord
Bishop. You are a prince of the Church. It would fare ill with an
earthly prince who could give no better answer to the affairs which
concerned his realm."

"There are other considerations which might be urged, most gracious
sire. It is true that the Crusades were a holy enterprise which might
well expect the immediate blessing of God; but the Crusaders--is it
certain that they deserved such a blessing? Have I not heard that their
camp was the most dissolute ever seen?"

"Camps are camps all the world over, and you cannot in a moment change
a bowman into a saint. But the holy Louis was a crusader after your own
heart. Yet his men perished at Mansurah and he himself at Tunis."

"Bethink you also that this world is but the antechamber of the next,"
said the prelate. "By suffering and tribulation the soul is cleansed,
and the true victor may be he who by the patient endurance of misfortune
merits the happiness to come."

"If that be the true meaning of the Church's blessing, then I hope that
it will be long before it rests upon our banners in France," said the
King. "But methinks that when one is out with a brave horse and a good
hawk one might find some other subject than theology. Back to the
birds, Bishop, or Raoul the falconer will come to interrupt thee in thy
cathedral."

Straightway the conversation came back to the mystery of the woods and
the mystery of the rivers, to the dark-eyed hawks and the yellow-eyed,
to hawks of the lure and hawks of the fist. The Bishop was as steeped
in the lore of falconry as the King, and the others smiled as the two
wrangled hard over disputed and technical questions: if an eyas trained
in the mews can ever emulate the passage hawk taken wild, or how long
the young hawks should be placed at hack, and how long weathered before
they are fully reclaimed.

Monarch and prelate were still deep in this learned discussion, the
Bishop speaking with a freedom and assurance which he would never have
dared to use i