Brewer's: Charles I

When Bernini's bust of Charles I. was brought home, the King was sitting in the garden of Chelsea Palace. He ordered the bust to be uncovered, and at the moment a hawk with a bird in its beak flew by, and a drop of the blood fell on the throat of the bust. The bust was ultimately destroyed when the palace was burnt down.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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