e chase, being the king of all animals.
How then would you say it?"

Nigel scratched his head. "Surely, fair sir, I would be content to say
that I had seen a number of lions, if indeed I could say aught after so
wondrous an adventure."

"Nay, Nigel, a huntsman would have said that he had seen a pride of
lions, and so proved that he knew the language of the chase. Now had it
been boars instead of lions?"

"One says a singular of boars."

"And if they be swine?"

"Surely it is a herd of swine."

"Nay, nay, lad, it is indeed sad to see how little you know. Your hands,
Nigel, were always better than your head. No man of gentle birth would
speak of a herd of swine; that is the peasant speech. If you drive them
it is a herd. If you hunt them it is other. What call you them, then,
Edith?"

"Nay, I know not," said the girl listlessly. A crumpled note brought in
by a varlet was clinched in her right hand and her blue eyes looked afar
into the deep shadows of the roof.

"But you can tell us, Mary?"

"Surely, sweet sir, one talks of a sounder of swine."

The old Knight laughed exultantly. "Here is a pupil who never brings me
shame!" he cried. "Be it lore--of chivalry or heraldry or woodcraft or
what you will, I can always turn to Mary. Many a man can she put to the
blush."

"Myself among them," said Nigel.

"Ah, lad, you are a Solomon to some of them. Hark ye! only last week
that jack-fool, the young Lord of Brocas, was here talking of having
seen a covey of pheasants in the wood. One such speech would have been
the ruin of a young Squire at the court. How would you have said it,
Nigel?"

"Surely, fair sir, it should be a nye of pheasants."

"Good, Nigel--a nye of pheasants, even as it is a gaggle of geese or a
badling of ducks, a fall of woodcock or a wisp of snipe. But a covey of
pheasants! What sort of talk is that? I made him sit even where you are
sitting, Nigel, and I saw the bottom of two pots of Rhenish ere I let
him up. Even then I fear that he had no great profit from his lesson,
for he was casting his foolish eyes at Edith when he should have been
turning his ears to her father. But where is the wench?"

"She hath gone forth, father."

"She ever doth go forth when there is a chance of learning aught that is
useful indoors. But supper will soon be ready, and there is a boar's
ham fresh from the forest with which I would ask your help, Nigel, and
a side of venison from the King's own chase. The tinem