company faced the river, and the trees that canopied the table were behind
them. Nothing, therefore, hindered Peirol from luring his pigeons to a
point within hearing of his voice, and concealing himself in the thick
leafage until Ranulph gave the signal for them to be brought upon the
stage. Most of the afternoon was spent in watching and discussing Peirol
and the pigeons.

"A pigeon has certain advantages," observed Gualtier Giffard, as he and
the troubadour, sitting a little way from the others, watched the carriers
rise and circle in the air. "He need only rise high enough to see his
goal,--and fly there." "Pity but a man might do the same," said Ranulph
lightly. The eyes of the two young men met for an instant in unspoken
understanding. Under some conditions they might have felt themselves
rivals. But neither the penniless younger son of a Norman house, nor a
landless troubadour of Avignon, had much hope of meeting Count Thibaut's
views for his only daughter.

"It would be rather absurd," Ranulph went on, stroking the feathers of the
little dun pigeon Rien-du-Tout, "for a bird to outdo a man. Perhaps some
day we shall even sail the air as now we sail the seas. Picture to
yourself a winged galleon with yourself at the helm--about to discover a
world beyond the sunset. It is all in having faith, I tell you. Unbelief
is the dragon of the ancient fables."

The Norman smiled rather sadly. "Meanwhile," he said, "having no flying
ships and no new crusades to prove our mettle, we spend ourselves on such
errands as we have, or beat the air vainly--like the pigeons. Were it not
that a man owes loyalty to his house and to his King I would enlist under
the piebald banner of the Templars. But my brother and I have set
ourselves to win back the place that our fathers lost, and until that is