298 MEMOIR OF 



there for a considerable time, he defended 

 himself against all odds with so much vigour 

 and effect, that several of the most adventurous 

 hounds were more or less severelv maimed in 

 the repeated and desperate charges he made 

 upon them. 



And now the struggle had all but taken a 

 more serious turn : an old man, muddled with 

 cider, in spite of all warning, went up, and 

 attempted to caress the infuriated animal, 

 addressing it thus : " Sober, now, sober, don't 

 'ee be scared, my pretty dear." On which 

 the deer, mistrusting his motive, made a fierce 

 lunge at him ; but missing a vital spot, drove 

 his brow^-antler right through the old fellow's 

 hand ; and, then and there, would have cer- 

 tainly killed him but for Russell's immediate 

 help. He rushed in, collared the deer by the 

 root of his near-side antler, dragged the man's 

 hand off the reeking tine, and then rolled over 

 and over with the deer into the bed of the 

 brook ; the animal forcing him under a foot- 

 bridge and kneeling upon him in the water. 



At length the deer shifted his position, 

 releasing Russell, and bringing his back to bear 

 against the wall of a thatched house, where, 

 like a Turk entrenched, he again stood his 

 ground with a lowered beam and defiant air. 

 But " the race is not to the swift, nor the 

 battle to the strong ; " for anon a farmer, called 



