THE CHILDREN
from the treetop, if he could reach it, he could see where the eagles had their nest.
John Ball came to drive away the hag's son, but as he did the hag herself came out of the black house. She pelted stones at John Ball and at Baldwin so that they were not able to come near.
The tree swayed and swayed under the strokes of the axe, but still Valentine went on and up. Hanging his sword around his neck he reached the top of the tree. He looked from the top and he saw the eagles' nest on the peak of the mountain; he saw the iron doors and the iron hoops that hooped it round. Then Valentine slid down the tree and stood on the ground before the hag's son.
The hag's son raised his axe in his long arms, and he rushed at Valentine. But the youth had his good bright sword in his hand, and he struck at the hag's son. All the time the hag kept flinging stones: first, she threw the pebbles that tiled the roof of her house and then she threw the
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