Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/307

The second would be an eagle. This bird is naturally strong, and powerful; and from that very circumstance we do not give him merit for his prowess. We do not honour violence; we fear it. Weakness has recourse to reason and stratagem for aid, and a trap, or an arrow, serves to destroy the strongest. William, therefore, shall be king, like the eagle, but, like him, he shall also be mischievous, cruel, feared, and hated; in a word, he shall meet with an untimely end.

The third would be a starling. It is a bird unassuming, and gracious. He prefers to live with others of the same kind. He will not do an injury to any one; and he awaits his dissolution tranquil and serene. Such is the character of Henry. Naturally peaceful, he will not make war without necessity. Rich and beneficent, he will be fond of a court as numerous as brilliant. If he suffer some mortifications, time, reason, and friendship, will soften them, and his end will be peaceful, and regretted by his subjects.

This is my decision upon the king's three children, continues the sagacious scholar; if you do not believe it to be just, mend it. I may be mistaken, but if so, I wish to be set right, and I will willingly give place to any opinion, better founded than my own.

It is easy to believe that all the council, from their previous embarrassment, greedily adopted this determination, which opened a way for them to get out of the difficulty, imposed on them by the Conqueror; and they also exhorted the sagacious scholar to go at their head, and himself to disclose to the monarch the opinion, which through his means had been adopted by the assembly.

They break up the sitting, and go to find their prince, who receives with honour those men, who came to draw aside for him the impenetrable veil that hides futurity from mortals. The sagacious leader announces to him, that his eldest son would be a gallant knight, but little esteemed; and that, in the end, he would die inprison.