150 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



place, and then we proceeded to beat the covert that 

 ran down to our posts in the first after-lunch beat. 

 Dogs and beaters were soon in full cry, and by the 

 sound of the former the pig must have crossed within 

 fifty yards of me. 



Directly afterwards I heard a shot from H/s post. 

 The beaters were silent, and imagining the beat to 

 be over, I walked down to the sea. Not a minute 

 after '' Vixen " and the spaniels opened behind me, 

 and as I turned towards the covert a roebuck broke. 

 Forgetting that my right barrel was loaded with 

 slugs (in which I have at any time little faith), and 

 consequently useless at a range of nearly a hundred 

 yards, I fired it. The deer changed his course, 

 giving me a broadside shot for the bullet, and then 

 disappeared in the thicket. Presently I caught sight 

 of him going up the wooded hillock, and detecting 

 an abnormal movement I ran after him, and found 

 him lying dead. Hardly had I reached him when 

 *' Vixen," following the line, also arrived, and seized 

 him by the throat. The bullet was nicely placed — 

 just behind the shoulder — a creditable performance 

 for the little gun. H. now joined me. Hearing the 

 dogs, he had run to the place where I had been 

 originally posted in the second beat. The pig had 

 crossed the open glade, but a hundred and fifty 

 yards beyond him, and consequently too far off for 

 his smooth-bore. This ended our first day. . 



Next morning we started for a long pull in the 

 gig through cold driving rain, and over a rough sea. 

 H., who was a first-rate swimmer, kept on explaining 

 what he would do if we were to be swamped. As 

 I am better on land than in the water, I felt this 

 conversation the reverse of cheering, especially as I 



