THE HUNTED STAG. 129 



a single leap. He will take places a man 

 can scarcely climb, always seeming to choose 

 the most difficult. Once now and then he 

 will leap gates, but generally goes through 

 the hedge or over the wall. If it should be 

 a gate, or hurdles, he goes up close to it till 

 almost touching, and then jumps. If he can 

 find another stag that he can master, he will 

 drive him up so that the hounds may follow 

 him, and lie down in the other's ' bed,' holding 

 his breath so that the hounds shall not scent 

 him, for the scent lies chiefly in the breath. 



The huntsman saw a stag leap up some 

 height from the path, drive another out, 

 and lie down himself .11 the furze. The 

 stag thus roused took the first stag's place 

 so completely, that the hounds went on with- 

 out a check, passing close to, and under the 

 first stag. Had not the huntsman seen it, 

 it would not have been known. He called 

 the hounds back, and re-started the first stag, 

 so that had it not been for the man the stag 

 would have beaten the hounds. Indeed, it 



K 



