eBooks Base 2000

"
"I will reason with him," said Jehan, "and by the only logic that such
carrion understands. I am by your side, brother. There is but the one cause
for all us countrymen."
But that afternoon as he walked abroad in his cornlands he saw a portent. A
heron rose out of the shallows, and a harrier-hawk swooped to the pounce,
but the long bird flopped securely into the western sky, and the hawk
dropped at his feet, dead but with no mark of a wound.
"Here be marvels," said Jehan, and with that there came on him the
foreknowledge of fate, which in the brave heart wakes awe, but no fear. He
stood silent for a time and gazed over his homelands. The bere was shaking
white and gold in the light evening wind; in the new orchard he had planted
the apples were reddening; from the edge of the forest land rose wreaths of
smoke where the thralls were busy with wood-clearing. There was little
sound in the air, but from the steading came the happy laughter of a child.
Jehan stood very still, and his wistful eyes drank the peace of it.


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