So we took the bird after a good chase, and then I knew that we had in some way shaken off the Saxons, and that we three vikings were together.

It did not trouble us, for one looks for such partings, and Ethelnoth had his own bounds.

So we went on, and found another bustard, and took it.
"Now we must go back," I said; "one must have a thought for the king's horses." So we turned, and then a heron rose from a boggy stream below us, and that was a quarry not to be let go.

I unhooded the falcon and cast her off, and straightway forgot everything but the most wonderful sight that the field and forest can give us--the dizzy upward climbing circles of hawk and heron, who strive to gain the highest place cloudwards, one for attack, the other for safety.
The evening sunlight flashed red from the bright under feathers of the strong wings as the birds swung into it from the shadow of the westward hill, and still they soared, drifting westward with the wind over our heads.

Then with a great rushing sound the heron gave up, and fell, stone-like, from the falcon that had won to air above him at last.