"TRESPASSERS" 121 



through the hedge again down the hollow, as fine a 

 brute as ever God made for man to maul. 



In spite of the running fire the field afterwards 

 was strewn with cartridge cases like a battlefield 

 one after another of the fugitives gets through and 

 away, some spent and bedraggled, others as if in a 

 fixed frenzy of flight, and insensible to any new terror. 



Last of all to break bounds was a strange creature 

 that came whirling over the field in a steadily 

 developed arc, as if blinded in one eye ; but though 

 fagged and limping, it passed unattacked through 

 the now close cordon. For, notwithstanding all 

 their howling and brandishing of staves, my lord's 

 henchmen are imbued with a due reverence for the 

 sacrificial character of the hare. They may grin 

 like dogs and whinny like horses as it passes, but 

 they may not touch it. Its person is sacred ; its 

 life is dedicate to my lord's double-barrel when my 

 lord has luck. 



When the game cart comes along, we have the 

 honour of observing that a score of hares and a 

 dozen pheasants have fallen to five guns during a 

 whole day's firing ; not to mention some forty 

 attendants whose company must at times have been 

 embarassing. This sport is said to keep our race 

 hardy, manly, soldierly. It may be so; but reflecting 

 upon these and other matters, it seems to us that 

 these men take their sport in a spirit of warfare, and 

 we were therefore not surprised to observe that some 

 of them appeared recently to take actual warfare in 

 a spirit of sport. The former may be considered to 

 be manly according to existing standards ; the latter 

 can be considered soldierly by no standard. 



