CAPERCAILZIE, BLACKGAME, PTARMIGAN, ETC. 67 



local beak. Fifty gulden were for the poaching and the rest 

 for the assault ; and then, worst of all, we were made to 

 understand the half of each fine would go to the cunning old 

 prosecutor. Having given notice of appeal, we returned home 

 somewhat crestfallen, and at the end of another month the 

 same well-turned-out soldier again presented us with a polite 

 missive requesting payment of the little account. He was 

 handsomely treated in the matter of schnaps, and was the 

 bearer on our behalf of an equally polite letter saying re- 

 mittances had not arrived from England ; but as we had not 

 ventured to make the matter known to our home office, this 

 was not to be wondered at. To our young, unfledged 

 ideas a fine of twenty pounds for taking a hawk's nest was a 

 cruel tyrannical wrong, and thus our great object was to gain 

 time, for well we knew our stay at Runkel would be over in 

 another ten days ; then before further applications were received, 

 perfide Albion had once more welcomed us to her shores, and 

 to this day, rightly or wrongly, it rejoices our heart that neither 

 the Limburg magistrate or that rascally old jager have ever 

 received any of that monstrously unfair penalty. 



