what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that
being the proper sign of my hostel?"

"Why," said Alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an
eagle or a falcon. I can well remember that learned brother
Bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed
one out to me as we walked together near Vinney Ridge."

"A falcon or an eagle, quotha? And pied, that is of two several
colors. So any man would say except this barrel of lies. He
came to me, look you, saying that if I would furnish him with a
gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and
also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied
merlin which I might hang along with the blazonry over my door.
I, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved,
leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must be
left untroubled when he had great work to do. When I came back
the gallon jar was empty, and he lay as you see him, with the
board in front of him with this sorry device." She raised up a
panel which was leaning against the wall, and showed a rude
painting of a scraggy and angular fowl, with very long legs and a
spotted body.

"Was that," she asked, "like the bird which thou hast seen?"

Alleyne shook his head, smiling.

"No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather. It is most
like a plucked pullet which has died of the spotted fever. And
scarlet too! What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boarhunte, or