492 Notes on Sport ajid Travel ix 



forehead, and tumbled him head over heels back- 

 wards into the cover, stone dead. 



1 had hardly reloaded when another roe bounded 

 across the ravine to my left, not quick enough, how- 

 ever, to escape the contents of both barrels, which 

 struck her in the head and side, and killed her as 

 instantly as her partner. 



A few minutes after the drivers came straggling 

 up, hot and tired, and our little party being got 

 together, and a few jokes exchanged in good fellow- 

 ship with our bullet -driving friend, we were all 

 only too glad to troop off, following our lengthening 

 shadows towards our airy breakfast-parlour under 

 the flat-topped apple-tree. 



We had a fair show of game considering all 

 things. Eight or ten brace of partridge, half-a- 

 dozen squirrels, one fox, three roe, blackbirds and 

 thrushes innumerable, a leash or two of hares, and 

 a beater winged, but not bagged. All the game, 

 excepting the roe which were taken by the foresters, 

 was sold by a species of auction, like the fish on 

 Hastings beach. A glass or two of wine went 

 round, and as the last rays of the setting sun were 

 peering over the purple peaks of the Eifel our 

 merry party broke up, scattering in little companies 

 of twos and threes towards their homes, the light 

 smoke of their pipes streaming steadily up in the 

 calm evening air, and the choruses of their songs 

 coming faintly towards us long after the singers 

 had faded in the darkness. Over the broad-backed 



