"That is he who paints the signs and the tokens.

Alack and alas that ever I should have been fool enough to trust him! Now, young man, 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.