THE LOST JAGEil. 189 



exertions undergone, the many anxious hours which must elapse before 

 he can have an opportunity even of trying his skill as a marksman all 

 contribute to enhance the intense delight of that moment when these 

 perils and exertions are repaid. Fritz leaped from his lurking-place, 

 and ran to the edge over which the animal had fallen. There it was, 

 sure enough, but how it was to be recovered presented a question of no 

 little difficulty. In the front of the precipice, which was almost as steep 

 and regular as a wall, a ledge projected at a considerable distance from 

 the summit, and on this lay the chamois, crushed by the fall. To de- 

 scend without assistance was impossible, but there was a chalet within a 

 couple of hours walk, at the foot of the Gauli Gletsher. The evening 

 was fine, there was every promise of a brilliant moonlight night, and 

 Fritz was too good a huntsman to fear being benighted, even with the 

 snow for his bed, and the falling avalanche for his lullaby. 



Gaily, therefore, he slung his carabine, paid his respects to the con- 

 tents of his wallet, not forgetting the Oberhasli Kirschwasser, and as he 

 made the solitude around him ring with the whooping chorus of the 

 kuh-lied, commenced his descent towards the chalet. 



On his arrival he found it empty. The inmates had probably de- 

 scended to the lower valley, laden with the products of their dairy, and 

 had not yet returned. He seized, however, as a treasure, on a piece of 

 rope which he found thrown over a stake, in the end of the house 

 appropriated to the cattle, and praying his stars that it might be long 

 enough to reach the resting-place of the chamois, he once more turned 

 his face towards the mountains. 



It was deep night when he reached the spot. The moon, from the 

 reflection of the snow, seemed to be shining from out a sky of ebony, 

 so dark and so beautiful, and the little stars were peering through, 

 with their light so clear and pure ; they shine not so in the valleys. 

 Fritz admired it, for the hearts of nature's sons are ever open to nature's 

 beauties, and though he had not been taught to feel, and his admiration 

 had no words, yet accustomed as he was to scenes like this, he often 

 stopped to gaze. The kuh-lied was silent, and almost without being 

 aware of it ; the crisping of the frozen snow beneath his footsteps was 

 painful to his ear, as something not in accordance with the scene around 

 him 'twas a peasant's unconscious worship at the shrine of the sublime. 

 But, to say the truth, he had no thought but one, as he approached the 

 spot where the chamois lay. The ledge on which it had fallen ran a 

 considerable way along the face of the cliff, and by descending at a 

 point at some distance from that perpendicularly above it, where a piece 

 of crag, projecting upwards, seemed to afford him the means of fastening 

 securely his frail ladder, he hoped to be able to find his way along to 

 the desired spot. Hastily casting a few knots on the rope, to assist him 

 in his ascent, he committed himself to its support. He had arrived 

 within a foot of the rocky platform, when the piece of crag to which 

 the rope had been attached, slipped from the base in which it seemed so 

 firmly rooted, struck in its fall the edge of his resting-place, sprung out 

 into vacancy, and went booming downwards to the abyss below. 



Fritz was almost thrown over the edge of the precipice by the fall, 

 but fortunately let go the rope, and almost without at all changing the 

 position in which he fell, could trace the progress of the mass as it went 

 whirling from rock to rock, striking fire wherever it touched in its pas- 

 sage, until it crashed amid the pine-trees. With lips apart and eyes 



